Ai Weiwei. Image from artnouveau.com.gr
With the refugee crisis continuing to grow, prevalent figures in the art world are taking a stand and speaking out in support of those affected. From Tracey Emin, who is one of five donors funding a four-year scholarship for refugee students at Bard College Berlin, to Anish Kapoor, who recently announced that he will donate the entirety of his $1 million Genesis prize money towards alleviating the crisis, there is much support in the community for those who have been forced to flee their native countries.
This support isn’t just monetary. Now more than ever, artists are using their work as a platform to further educate audiences on the issue, thus bringing political works to the forefront. Using a wide range of mediums, here are 5 artists impacting their viewers with raw, shocking and thought provoking works.
Ai Weiwei. Image from widewalls.ch
Ai Weiwei
In 2015, the image of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian infant lying lifeless on a Turkish beach made global headlines. The shocking photograph has become the defining symbol for the plight of refugees, highlighting the cost of human life as a result of sheer desperation. Powerful as this image may be, a provocative recreation of the image by long-term activist and political artist Ai Weiwei presented even further questioning – with divided opinions calling him out for a “stunt”, or applauding his piece as a necessary response. Ai WeiWei’s reenactment sees him posing as the drowned child, positioned face down in the pebbles of a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos – a key point of entry into the EU for thousands of refugees. The staged piece was created as part of a project aimed at bringing awareness to the situation in a studio the artist purposely set up on the island.
Yannis Behrakis. Image from greecebyagreek.com
Yannis Behrakis
Greek-born Yannis Behrakis joined the Reuters photo-agency in 1987 and has spent the past 30 years documenting various conflicts across the world – covering wars from Croatia to Afghanistan and the troubles in Egypt and Libya. After a brief stint working as Reuters’ chief photographer for Israel and Palestinian Territories in 2008, Behrakis moved back to his hometown of Greece with the intention of recording the financial crash occurring at the time. What he found upon his return, however, was an influx of migrant boats flooding the Greek coastline, so he turned his lens to the refugee crisis as well as his initial project. The photographer’s striking image portraying an over-crowded dinghy carrying multiple Syrian families crossing the Aegean sea to various Greek islands earned him the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, and his meticulous documentation of arriving refugees led him to be named Photojournalist of the Year by Reuters shortly after.
Bissane Al Charif. Image from britishcouncil.org
Bissane Al Charif
Born in Paris to Palestinian parents, Bissane Al Charif moved to Syria at a young age and spent her early life there. Upon graduating from the faculty of architecture at Damascus University in 2001, the artist moved back to France to continue her studies and, after a brief spell working in Syria, is now based in Paris. Al Charif’s Syrian roots are a major influence on her work as an artist, and although her departure from the country wasn’t as that of a refugee, her work concentrates on the struggle migrants face in transitioning from one country to another. Offering insight into emigrating from home, the artists’ installation piece “Women Memories” tells the stories of eight different women who fled Syria, through a series of interview questions. Extracting information about their previous homes, their arduous journey, what they brought and who they left behind, Al Charif gives a voice to her exiled community. “I just wanted to put these women there, one after the other”, the artist says of the project. “We all left. This is what we’ve lived through when we did.”
Banksy. Image from huffingtonpost.co.uk
Banksy
UK street artist Banksy is no stranger to controversial artworks, having made a name for himself through his dark humour and savage wit. Moving on from his satirical depictions of policemen kissing, the anonymous graffiti buff has, in recent years, concentrated on spraying murals that are more political than comical – touching on sensitive topics like Napalm Girl, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and most recently, the refugee crisis. Intending to address negative attitudes towards the thousands of migrants living in wait at the “Calais Jungle”, a popular entry point for the UK, Banksy a tribute to the late-Steve Jobs on one of the walls of the French refugee camp. A depiction of the Apple founder shows him holding an original Apple computer in one hand, with a black bin-bag slung over his other shoulder, alluding to the fact that one of the most profitable companies in the world is the brain-child of the son of a Syrian migrant. In a rare statement, Banksy stated of this piece, “We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources, but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world’s most profitable company; it pays over $7bn a year in taxes – and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.”
E.B. Itso. Image from artandonly.com
E.B. Itso
Danish artist E.B Itso is renowned for concentrating his artwork on groups of people who either purposely or unintentionally live outside of what society deems socially conventional. A fascination with the overlooked, the strange and the hidden has recently inspired Itso to create a body of work tackling the migrant crisis – a class of people he deems neglected. To create his work, the multimedia artist travelled to the well-known access point for refugees from North Africa – the Italian island of Lampedusa. While there, he collected remnants of abandoned clothing and other items from the islands shores; bits and pieces that were discarded by migrants when they arrived into Italy by boat. Interested in the idea that the refugees literally shed a layer of their past upon entering the country, Itso preserved his findings by dipping the garments in paint and printing them on paper, finishing his pieces with frames made from driftwood he also unearthed from the Lampedusa beach. Titling the series “Sheddings”, the works were sold for $10,000 each – all proceeds went to charity.