A Home in the Constant Flux

A Call to the Verb Memory

Installation Opening: Saturday, 25th May 2024, 11am

Installation on show until Sunday, 26th May 2024, 8pm

Walkthrough with the Curator: 

Saturday, 25th May, 6pm – 7pm

Sunday, 26th May, 12:15pm – 1:15pm

Panel Discussion:

Sunday, 26th May, 11am – 12pm

The exercise to retrace the intangible memories entwined with tangible objects is what created the research-based series of thirty-six photos A Home in the Constant Flux: A Call to the Verb Memory. The central idea of this photo-series is that during migration of people across geographies, the objects of love and necessity undergo the arduous ordeal, and that these, bearing the patina of age, create a desire to develop an understanding that personal histories are not isolated from the political selves.

The technique of cyanotypes, which is used to print the archival maps for A Home in the Constant Flux: A Call to the Verb Memory metamorphoses into a metaphor of capriciousness – endured by refugees. As the cartographic lines, in various shades of blue and white, overlap the digital images of the objects, they gesture at the fluidity of the memory only to find itself resistant to the burden of confinement around the refugees. The aesthetic of distortion – in the form of borders, the viscosity of the blues and whites, and the ballet of letters – epitomises the inevitability of embracing impermanence as one of the few constants in a life on the move. The element of distortion serves as a bridge between abstract and representation to encourage the viewer to navigate and map the photo series in order to question the boundaries of perception.

The panel discussion on the second day of the event will delve into the influence of visual representation on refugee narratives, particularly in light of the surge of imagery overpowering the social and print media in recent years. This influx frequently drowns out the individual voices of refugees, maintaining stereotypical visual stereotypes that confine visual language of that of a destitute ‘other’. Furthermore, the conversation will confront the inherent tendency to marginalize migrants through photography, highlighting the disparity between mainstream portrayals and the more empathetic and authentic depictions found in the research-based project A Home in the Constant Flux: A Call to the Verb Memory.

In collaboration with: ICAAD Human Rights Innovation