The Refugee / 2016 / PET bottle cap, polyethylene film, tape, plywood, structural timber, light bulb, rock, UV print on plastic tarp, felt underlay / 312 x 250 x 206 cm
This work reconfigures a refugee’s house in ‘the Jungle’, a currently dismantled refugee camp in Calais, France. In an environment where even survival couldn’t be guaranteed, I saw this house ornamented with colorful bottle caps. I felt the house was a representation of the aesthetic sense of refugee, with a strong will to reveal their individuality. Like the refugees did, I gathered discarded materials to build the house. It was an effort to view them from their standpoint, creating a kind of solidarity by bringing the act they did into my life. Inside the house, there is a photograph of my hand. The refugees who I spent time with wrote their names on my hand. I want to remember them as strong humans who maintain their personhood and reveal themselves.