ReConstitution

From Antique Lands by Julian Huxley, 1955, pulped and reformed with words from Thomas Nail’s essay, Migration, Borders and Writing, 2019; inkjet on home-made paper with looped video, 2mins.

Included in a group show titled Belongings (2024), which celebrates the contribution of migrants and refugees to British culture. Here, we show work made by refugee artists and makers who have attended Central St Martins (UAL) over the last century, alongside new work by staff, students and recent graduates with migration in their family history. Together, they advance a new experiential understanding of what it means to ‘belong’ in the context of global migration and illustrate the lasting value of the cultural contributions made by those who have moved to the UK.

Belongings was co-created by Susan Aldworth, Sara David, Natalia Mesa Echavarria, Sarah-Jane Field, Silvina Maestro, Julia Shutkevych, Michaelle St Vincent and Judy Willcocks, with support from CSM’s Creativity in Action Fund.

Text in artwork from Nail, T. (2020) ‘Borders, Migrants, and Writing’, Konturen, 11, pp. 152–173. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5399/uo/konturen.11.0.4831.