Chair nr 35

I worked with "Borderland Europe" to create these works they assisted with entering my first refuge holding stations in Sicily. I found out, later that, I was able to move freely between camps with the assistance of a camp cleaner and a camp translator as black women are often moved between the camps with no questions asked. This chair was created in Trapani which is a small coastal town in Sicily Italy that is opposite the African continent. In my work I often consider the violence of the sacrifice needed to create change in a situation of objectification. Images of refugees in boats and in the water are often taken from above by authorities whereby the people are abstracted to such an extent that their individuality, their personhood is unrecognizable. I had Conversations with fishermen about how they share information on “no fish areas“ because of the amount of decomposing bodies in the water. This in combination with the casual acceptance of a massive loss of lives lead me to create this and other works in the Trapani Series.