Life Jacket Graveyard

A one day installation in Parliament Square organised by the International Rescue Committee on 19 September 2016.

It appeared overnight and consisted of hundreds of life jackets all worn by children and adults when crossing the water between Turkey and the Greek island of Chios. It was done to coincide with the UN Migration Summit in New York.

It was beautiful and looked like a field of colourful flowers from above but when you went down to ground level each one had been worn and was dirty and battered. It made you imagine the stories of the individuals who had worn them as well as the enormity of the migrant crisis.
 
I have seen so much contemporary art about the migrant crisis it's getting a bit repetitive but this was was such a simple idea and really effective.

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