People and change: exploring enforced migration
This display is now closed
People and change focuses on the global issue of enforced migration, featuring work by artist Rosemarie Marke, who came to London as a refugee from Sierra Leone. Alongside Marke's work is that of clients from the Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers, created through workshops led by Rosemarie.
Although it is 200 years since the transatlantic slave trade was abolished, enforced migration is still a global issue with terrible human consequences. Political, economic, religious and personal persecution forces individuals and families to flee their homes and start new lives in other countries. Such was the reality for Rosemarie and clients from the Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers.
In 1997, Rosemarie’s life changed forever. As Head of the Arts for the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Education and an internationally exhibiting artist and teacher, Rosemarie lost her entire collection of work when she was forced to flee the war. After some time she and her sons arrived in England to seek asylum and now live in Camden.
The artists from the Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers come from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America and range from 3 - 60 years of age. The group were encouraged to reflect the experience of enforced migration and the impact it imposed on their lives.
Rosemarie said: “The result of the workshops is a variety of abstract, reflective and complex pieces that convey a very personal message. We offered the group a unique opportunity to truly express how migration changes everything about the world we live in and the people we become.”
People and change runs until March 2011. Free admission.
