Kiass series, 2018

Kiass series, 2018, Sizes Variable, Embroidery on Plastic Bags.

This current body of work grew from the curiosity of identifying what people take when forced to leave their home? During a three-month residency program, working to reintegrate Syrian refugee communities into the UK, firsthand accounts were shared and this precise question explored. With the vast majority of refugees fleeing with but the clothes on their back and a plastic bag containing ‘essentials’, this notion forms the central theme around this work. Plastic bags are commonly used, over an otherwise more practical suitcase, for fear of drawing attention to their fleeing which would be interdicted by the government forces.

From period pads to cigarettes, needle and thread to a falafel maker, a Rakweh (coffee pot) to heart medication; these salvaged items span the sentimental, to the practical, essential and desired, each carefully embroidered onto their respective owner’s bag.