Kieran Youd
In this academic dissertation, the role of art relating to the migration crisis will be analysed. I have chosen to write about this as the death of Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach, affected me deeply. As an artist, I wondered how art could portray and impact upon the refugee crisis. The Syrian migration crisis, the migration crisis in Venezuela and the impact of the troops being withdrawn from Afghanistan will be explored. Artists today are taking notice and producing work that reflects their own views. Some of these artists are refugees or asylum seekers themselves. Artists have successfully raised awareness of these issues.
Kieran Youd
It shows us the story of how baby Jesus was saved though migration.King Herod of Israel decreed that the first born male of every family should be killed. With the birth of baby Jesus and Herod King of Israel knowing that his downfall in the world and ordered the death of the first born male in the country. An angel warns Mary and Joseph to flee with the baby Jesus to evade the bloodthirsty king.
Images emerged of a 5 year old boy lying face down on a beach in Turkey. His name was Aylan. the prospects of Syrian Kurd refugees being granted asylum in Canada were hampered the moment they set out from Turkey because for many years Syria denied its Kurdish population citizenship and Kurds were regarded as stateless. Turkey opened their borders for refugees but people with passports would get temporary status for a year and those without would have to register at a refugee camp.
Woman in Grief (1969) Uzo Egonu. . Migration does not mean losing culture or identity. It means to bring two different identities together and this is what Egonu produced, he painted experiences on the canvas as a way of keeping his multicultural identity intact. He used the canvas to navigate the identity he has weaved between Nigeria and the UK.
Hatoum was born and grew up in Beirut in a Palestinian family who fled from Haifa following the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. Like the majority of the Palestinians who became exiles in Lebanon in 1948, they were never able to get Lebanese identity cards. This was a way of discouraging them from joining the Lebanese community. Kapan means trap two in Turkish. I personally felt vulnerable and a vulnerability that I rarely experience when observing a piece of art. It brought out emotions that I was hardly aware existed.
MIGRATION?
Visual images have had a long history witn migration. With each visual image has a different interpretation of the migration crisis. . As an artist, I wondered how art could portray and impact upon the refugee crisis. Artists today are taking notice and producing work that reflects their own views. Some of these artists are refugees or asylum seekers themselves. Artists have successfully raised awareness of these issues. compare artists who have experienced this kind of migration with those who are making work based art on their experiences of migration to establish if their approaches are different. I tryed though the research to establish whether if evocative, thought-provoking art about migration can be produced without direct personal experience.
