Text and Images by Ekene Okobi, LCF PG Community Ambassador
studying MSc Applied Psychology in Fashion at London College of Fashion
On a cold, snowy, St. Patrick’s Saturday, with my UAL Postgraduate Community Ambassador hat on, I led a trip to the Migration Museum in Lambeth, where we first took in No Turning Back: Seven Migration Moments that Changed Britain (the exhibit currently on there), before taking part in the Moving Hearts Workshop led by artist Penny Ryan, and organized by King’s College London researchers Professor Anna Reading and Dr. James Bjork. Workshop participants made clay hearts inscribed with personalized messages, as part of a month-long project intended to produce 1000 hearts.
Moving Hearts is an extension of Connecting Hearts, begun by Ryan in 2016 in her native Australia in response to a series of events that caused her own heart to grow heavy: these included the increased drownings of migrants attempting to reach the relative safety of Europe and Australia, and of the inhospitable reception many of those who survived such harrowing journeys received upon arrival. She describes being especially troubled by the inhumane conditions on the islands of Naru and Manus, with its high rates of self-harm, suicide and human rights violations against the refugees who have been detained there in their search for asylum in Australia. Attempting to connect with those who were just as distressed at this state of affairs as she was, Ryan embarked on a project to create 1468 hearts (one for every detainee) with like-minded souls in a show of solidarity with those in custody. She described the heart as “being a good metaphor for the condition that [she] wanted to highlight,” everyone has a heart, regardless of race, gender, religion, nationality etc.
Hundreds of people answered Ryan’s initial call to come make hearts inscribed with personal messages while sharing their stories of migration, and expressing dismay at the current national and international mood towards refugees and migration. The resulting hearts were fired, wrapped in white fabric, and laid out in a labyrinth installment in Sydney on 10 December 2016, Human Rights Day. Visitors were invited to walk through the labyrinth and choose hearts to unwrap in a symbolic gesture of welcome. They were also encouraged to write a message on the cloth in response to the heart’s inscription. Ryan has now brought the workshop and installation to England with the help of Reading and Bjork, and for the past month, the trio have hosted longtime Londoners and visitors alike who’ve come to make hearts and share stories.
Ryan asked everyone to introduce themselves, and share their connection to migration. One woman spoke of being haunted by her Iraqi husband’s family’s dispossession, desperation and eventual flight to resettlement in France. She described them as relatively lucky, due to an urbane, sophisticated lifestyle that enabled the forging of international connections. Many participants spoke of their own international connections, and of nomadic lives that crossed many borders. Penny’s partner Jonathan shared boyhood memories of the White Australia policy, “there was never a White Australia, but there was a White Australia policy.” Another Australian and recent arrival to London discussed the culture shock of the concept of borders as historical faultines that she’s experienced since her arrival to the UK: “I’ve never come from a place that has a border.” A Turkish couple, also recent arrivals to the UK spoke of the irony of leaving a homeland where they feel “unsafe”, given the fact that it is currently a place to which many refugees flee in search of safety.
All the UAL students in attendance were international students, and so our interest in immigration was superficially self-evident. Our own introductions revealed sustained personal, political and professional engagement with the topic. Caglar Tahiroglu (MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins) from Turkey is researching trauma, exile and creativity. She has worked with Doctors Without Borders and volunteered with refugees in places such as Calais and Central Africa. She has been running art therapy workshops with refugees in Hackney as part of her research, and will be running workshops and exhibiting at the Stockwell Centre’s Migrant Connections Festival in April, and for Berlin Refugee Week (in conjunction with Counterpoint Arts) in June. For her dissertation project, Margarita Novikova (MA Sound Arts at London College of Communication) is creating an online oral history platform that will include stories of migration and exile called the Be Heard Museum. Eva Afifah studies on the MA Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins, her current project called Borderless Art. Its aim is to raise awareness about migration especially related to refugees together with artists/designers in the UK and bring it to the public through a zine & workshop. They collaborate with Arts Student Union, Student Actions for Refugees, and the Indian Community of UAL. 
It was time to make some hearts: “We sweat into the clay as we make them, so you leave a bit of yourself into them.” Ryan said before leading us step-by-step into constructing the hearts, a process supported by assistants stationed at each table, and scored by the Choir With No Name’s concert recital in the Workshop below (at one point their rendition of “With a Little Help From My Friends” seemed particularly apt). After ensuring that we understood the process, Ryan moved around to have quick one-to-one chats with various participants. She frequently asked people to pose with their completed heart, taking pictures of them with her mobile phone.
Like their predecessors, the completed hearts will be fired and wrapped in white cloth. They will then be walked in procession from King’s College, London to the Migration Museum,, where they will be laid out into a spiral through which visitors can pass through, pick up a heart, unwrap it in welcome and write a message on the cloth in response to the heart’s inscription. Visitors will be invited to take a heart home in exchange for a donation to the Migration Museum.
The procession and the closing events of the Moving Hearts Exhibit will take place this weekend, 24 and 25 March. Click here for more information.
Check out the more of Ekene’s photographs from the event here
Related Links:
- Find out more about the UAL Postgraduate Community Ambassadors
- Moving Hearts Workshop
- Migration Museum
Caglar Tahiroglu http://cargocollective.com/caglartahiroglu
Migrant Connections Festival https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/migrant-connections-festival-tickets-44181599353
https://www.facebook.com/events/1577943758926128/
Magarita Novikova Be Heard Museum http://www.beheard.art/#Home