Recent work – Miriam Mc Connon
As a visual artist, Miriam McConnon works with families who have been recently or in the past been displaced because of war. This body of work is concerned with excavating the personal experience of displacement from the collective stories looking at the opposing narratives of the refugee and the non-refugee. The work incorporates personal objects from the refugee’s migratory journey. These visual testimonies expose a commonality between the current global restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic and the constant reality for those displaced by conflict.
Through installation and painting, McConnon employs objects to construct new objects, reimagining them as objects anchored to ideas of conflict and home. By altering the identity of an object in her work, McConnon aims to alter perceptions. Passports become tents in a refugee camp, the ammunition from a child’s toy gun become flowers, an infant bracelet takes on the form of a tank and envelopes become homes.
This exhibition serves as a reminder that the freedom of movement, access to medicine and education are indeed a privilege.
