Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Migration Museum looking at the Calais Jungle and the issues which led to its creation. The first section looked at people’s journeys to the camp with excellent photographs by Daniel Castro Garcia and Christian Sinibaldi particularly one of broken boats as a metaphor for broken people. I loved a gauze sheet covered in paper boats by Bern O’Donoghue and called “Dead Reckoning”. The next section looked at identity and talked about how people in the camp saw themselves and what they chose to show or keep hidden. I liked a sculpture of lots of little figures in a wide procession called “Wanderers” by Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen. The last section looked at the camp itself and the community which grew up there. The commentary said it’s format was like any other town but the population was overwhelmingly young males. Again there were great photograph but again the commentary points out that camera were often viewed with suspicion. I loved a sect...

Interesting installation at the Royal Festival Hall of a hut from the Calais Jungle. This was one of the first houses to be built there by Alpha Diagne an artist from West Africa. It became used as an art school and gallery and there were painting that had been made there inside. The sides were made of pallets covered in blue tarpaulin and lined with bedcovers. The roof was thatched with a blue chair on top. The word Home was laid out in polystyrene letters around the edge.   It is shown alongside a sister exhibition on the other side of the 4th floor on the Calais Jungle to put it into context. I am noticing art about the migrant crisis or by migrants is starting to find its way into exhibitions. It has taken about a year of looking at the images of the crisis for it to seep through into the art world. Closes on 28 September 2016.