“With the escalation of the civil war and the rise of the Islamic State, thousands of Syrians fled their country in despair through shores of Turkey to Europe. In early August 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced that the number of refugees had reached 250,000 migrants.

 

Having survived the unbearable travel conditions through the deadly migration route to the promise land, migrants are greeted by rows of razor-sharp wire. Since 2015 a notable number of barbwire fences rose around designated refugee camps to avoid people evasion, as Member States of the European Union (EU) and their neighbors relentlessly tried to keep migrants away from their territory.

 

The first layer of this work reflects on the violent nature of those borders and their traumatic impact on asylum seekers. 

 

The second layer plays with the false promise behind the fences. For the promise land offers no Garden of Eden, but rather isolated places of poverty, uncertainty and despair.

 

A decapitated cemetery cherub/ putty romantically poses in ruins. I chose the symbol as it represents the eviction of man from the promised Garden of Eden.

 

“So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:24

 

This work is again another attempt to romanticizing the refugee crisis.

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Media Links:

https://www.aucegypt.edu/news/stories/15-women-photographers-exhibit-highlights-womens-contributions