Leave to Remain
2003 - 2005

In 2003, I initiated and curated an exhibition of works dealing with the experience of exile, by artists who are exiled. Titled 'Leave to Remain', the project showcased 11 artists, whose works ranged from painting, sculpture to installation, connected by a thread of enquiry into notions of belonging, home, identity and displacement.
For further information about the project please visit www.leavetoremain.org
To read a recent article What Remains published on the Refugee Week Blog, please click here

Standard Class Opinions
Photographic installation, 2003

Standard Class Opinions is an installation consitsting of 100 photographs, of random passengers traveling in standard class train carriages between locations of London, Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester. Passengers were asked about their views on asylum sekers coming to Britain. These answers are shown alongside portrait photographs of the passengers. But while part of the installation is static, the other part is left for the viewer to finish, in a match-the-comment-to-the-person game-like process. Continue reading...

"The Old Cemetery is a quiet haven for wild flowers and a good place to find butterflies on sunny days'
Series of 10 photographs, 2005

Since stumbling upon a curious statue of an angel worrier, squeezed between an early 1900 building and the 70's socialist building, in Belgrade, I have been on the look out for abandoned statues. These abandonded warriors, scattered like old road signs, spoke to me of passing of time, transience of values and beliefs we hold on to, die for and who with us turn into ashes. The Old Cemetery, is a completely abandoned cemetery in Barnes, London, and I was struck by the care that went in creating and erecting the angel statues, which now lay headless and forgotten. The title is borrowed from the local information board's description of the cemetary.
To see all 10 photographs please click here or on the photo.

Shown as part of 600 images/60 artists/6 curators/6 cities exhibition, at the Great Eastern Hotel, 2005.

Untitled {OK if you insist, The Brit Melt}
Works in wax, 2004

The work explores the distortion of the facts in the media, through the process of applying text taken from the tabloids then melting it then applying the same text again. The result are fragmented sections of readable and unreadable text.
Text used was based on an article in The Sun, about asylum seekers eating Queen's swans. All 'asylum seeker' and 'refugee' words were replaced by an ethnic group category commonly used in the equal opportunities forms. The text becomes distorted and each ethnic group takes turns at being accused of stealing Queen's swans, thus putting in context the objectifying of asylum seekers that occurs so frequently in the media. To read more about this work and the touring exhibition When in Rome, please click here or on the image.