In this exhibition Miriam McConnon presents the individual stories of young male refugees in paintings and sculpture of personal objects that narrate their journey of displacement, of integration and of aspirations for the future. The work looks at the many layers to these stories, disenabling the categorization of ‘refugee’ to define these young men.
This exhibition is the second part in a project called ‘The refugee’s Armour’ which was funded by the Irish Arts Council. The first part of the project was a solo exhibition of paintings by the same title at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin in September 2023. Both exhibitions take place in cities on the edges of the EU’s Eastern and Western border, highlighting the issue that the freedom of movement is a privilege not a human right.
In a series of large drawings, the viewer is presented with a male suit jacket suspended from a wire. Each suit jacket bears decorative patterns that originate from personal objects related to the individual journey of displacement. These jackets represent each young male refugee’s armour or safety net against the issues they face in their attempt to establish a new life following conflict and war.
The installation ‘Altered Epilogues’ presents books that have been cut up and stripped of their covers. They are exposed and take on the form tents laid out in the format of a refugee camp. This sculpture exposes the irreversible damage that war does to a child’s education, reducing their opportunities for a better future.
This exhibition examines psychological armour to protect, personal objects to connect and clothing to bear witness and providing a voice to tell the most human of stories.