Stories of Migration, SOAS Gallery, exhibition review: ‘Grand questions that haunt us all’
A still from the film Unstoppable Beat, which tells the story of a Haitian migrant in Brazil. Image: courtesy SOAS Gallery
We are all the product of migration. Since the origin of the species, families have been on the move, often ending up far from where they were born.
In an age of high-speed travel and digital communication, journeying long distances has become ever more viable.
Yet in making the leap from home, migrants face formidable challenges: physical danger, legal woes, linguistic barriers, cultural animosity, and simple lack of comprehension often pile up into a fraught experience.
Stories of Migration at SOAS Gallery is a multimedia exhibition featuring the narratives of migrants via animation, graphic art, video, photography and poetry.
The work on display has been produced by non-profit organisation PositiveNegatives which engages with a network of visual artists to transform ethnographic research into formats accessible to all.
Life on the Move is a stop-motion animation that explores the complex reasons for migration. Image: courtesy SOAS Gallery
Drawing on archival material from over a decade of study, the exhibition includes 15 comics and animations of different types that together explore a common set of themes: the homes people set off from, the trips they make and the places they arrive.
The tales we see and hear are full of contrasts: isolation rubs shoulders with solidarity; fear is tempered with the small kindnesses of strangers, and longing for absent family members mixes with hopes of a better life.
We also learn much about the nitty gritty of long-distance travel via unconventional means: precarious transport, noise, lack of privacy and exploitation.
These individual stories are framed by a series of grand questions such as ‘What makes a decent life?’ and ‘Is hope enough?’ that haunt us all at some level, but which come to the fore when people are displaced.
As you walk out of the gallery, you’ll be reminded that lived experience is for some only a short trek from deep philosophical concerns. May you be lucky enough to make that crossing.
Stories of Migration runs until 22 March at SOAS Gallery, 10 Thornhaugh Street, WC1H 0XG.