700 items of displacement

Roisin O’Connor

An artist has created a powerful installation to highlight the ongoing refugee crisis. 

British war artist Arabella Dorman, who first visited Lesbos in 2015 after spending time on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan, said “nothing compared” to what she witnessed on those beaches.

“It was so shocking to see the level of trauma, especially among children, the innocents caught up in war,” she told the Guardian.

“There were thousands of items of clothing discarded by refugees. I was struck by the concept of the empty garment, evoking the hidden presence of the person who had worn that item. These clothes reveal what is now being forgotten.”

There are among 700 items of refugee clothing, found on beaches and fields around the Greek island, in the artwork which Dorman calls Suspended.

The piece is currently hanging in the nave of St James’s Church in Piccadilly, London, and aims to bring the refugee crisis back into mainstream consciousness, and to raise money for the Starfish Foundation, which helps refugees. 

— The Independent