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In 2003, I interviewed random passengers traveling in standard class
train carriages. The train routes were 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.
The site of engagement being a train, which is moving from one place
to another; those engaged talking about people who are constantly
on the move, searching for a stable place; those 'others' being
labeled asylum seekers...all of this creates a curious theatre,
upon which the story about place, home, space, and the judgment
of one upon the other's right to that space, unfolds.
Another aspect to this performance is the engagement of the artist,
myself, posing as a neutral mediator, a stranger, thus winning the
trust of random participants, also strangers. The experience of
being 'one of us', in order to talk about 'them' points to the core
of the issue I am interested in - a seeming perception of difference
and division.
Standard Class Opinions' by Margareta Kern questions
the artificiality of separateness and affiliation. In some cases
the sense of ‘us’ can be found in the text. This occurs
when there is an identifying moment with the colonial subject which
signifies the end of a struggle for acceptance, e.g. “As Long
as they are nice people and they don’t stab other people and
as long as they …yeah”. Any label or affiliation is used
to point out ‘difference’ to the extent that the asylum
seeker becomes the alternative ‘other’. This is problematic,
the notion of the ‘other’ as defined by Frantz Fanon in
his book Black Skin. White Masks blackness is deconstructed to the
point of no return by the West; in post-colonial theory the black
body remains fragmented and looses its identity. Equally the ‘other’
in postcolonial postmodernist theories enables black artists to
use it to make sense of race and re-appropriation so they can offer
alternative forms of black culture. In Kern’s work blackness
is accepted in texts and photographs, this enables the group to
claim the power to speak for humanity that ensures that another
‘other’, the asylum seeker, can be constructed. This leads
to another point which is at play here. It is the practice of conveying
a conviction of responsibility. People are aware of the politics
surrounding asylum seekers and equally are engaged with the responsibility
and problems providing space for asylum seekers.
Excerpt from Inversions and Transferrals: The Para Site Fabricator
by Pauline de Souza. To read the whole text please click here
Below is a selection of answers by interviewed passengers:
'Britain is flooded with asylum seekers and a solution to the problem
has to be found.'
'I don't mind them coming. On the whole, people who come here have
contributed a great deal to our society (for example the Huguenots
in the 17th century and the Chinese in Manchester and London).'
'I don't have any objection but in terms of immigration, there's
go to be a limit and the Governments got to watch that. We should
be a welcoming country but a line should be drawn somewhere.'
'Genuine asylum seekers, yes, I think we should welcome them with
open arms but I begrudge the others who come and claim our benefits.'
'What shall I say? The man who is an asylum seeker, you know, nobody
leaves his land unless he has a big problem. '
'I don't really have an opinion. I've never been affected. My Dad's
become racist and wants to get out of Birmingham because they're
like, everywhere, but they never bothered me.'
'Since their inception, immigration laws have had a racist bias.
I think we have the responsibility to find out the facts before
we make an opinion.'
'Standard Class Opinions' installation has been shown
at:
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