Representing Refugees

Art Exhibition ‘Representing Refugees’

The exhibition was held at Matrix Chambers, Gray’s Inn, London www.matrixlaw.co.uk , from 28.02.08 - 30.04.08. Mixed media solo show illustrating the asylum process from the viewpoint of an advocate. The show included 53 individual artworks. Project partners; Matrix Chambers, Forward UK a leading UK based charity campaigning against FGM and forced child marriage www.forwarduk.org.uk and The NIA Project, a London based charity campaigning to end violence against women and children www.niaendingviolence.org.uk

The idea for the exhibition grew directly from a series of theoretical discussions about my PhD with artist and Human Rights Barrister Booan Temple. My involvement included:

• The overall concept, selection and development of individual works.
• Design of Power Point Presentation to promote concept.
• Promotion of idea with Booan Temple and Hugh Tomlinson QC.
• Design of Exhibition invitation and catalogue with Matrix marketing and printers: including foreword for the catalogue by Rabinder Singh QC, who also hosted the Private View.
• The development of new digital techniques to allow enlargement, without pixilation of images e.g. of photos taken with a 1.3 mp mobile phone camera to A2 size photos and scanned images of a 15mm x 20mm pastel to A1 print.
• Curation and supervision of the hang.
• Documentation of the exhibition, using film and still photography.
• Printing of limited edition prints for sale at the exhibition with Seamus Ryan at Seamus Ryan Photography, Ezra St E2, London.

Continuing impact outside of academia:

February 2008 - Private view of ‘Representing Refugees’ attended by artists, lawyers and representatives of refugee groups and charities approx. 200 people.

October 2010 - Booan Temple became a Trustee for Forward UK

January 2011 - Don Boyd became a Patron of Forward UK

January 2011 - Karon Monaghan QC (Leading QC specialising in Equality and Diversity) became a Patron of Forward UK

March 2011 – Collaboration between Forward, AFRUCA www.afruca.org and Film maker Yaba Badoe to show Yaba’s Film ‘The Witches of Gambaga’ at The Amnesty International Human Rights Centre in London. The Film won Best Documentary Black International Film Festival 2010 and 2nd prize FESPACO 2011, Don Boyd chaired the event and Booan Temple introduced it.

March/April 2012 – Power Point from the exhibition used by Booan Temple to give illustrated talks to community groups about the asylum process in the UK

19.09.2012 - Policy Briefing by FORWARD UK hosted by Matrix Chambers ‘Reviewing the UK FGM Policy Framework: The Reality and opportunities for Change’. Presentations by Professor Lisa Avalos, Georgetown University and Naana Otoo-Oyortey, FORWARD Executive Director, Chaired by Karon Monaghan QC. Due to the success of the event a half-day conference is being planned for Summer 2013.

11.10.2012 - To mark International Day of the Girl Child FORWARD organised a book launch of ‘Harmarttan’ by Gavin Weston (the novel portrays the devastating consequences child marriage has on girls living in sub-Saharan West Africa) at King’s Cross Hub, the event was chaired by Don Boyd.

Re: PhD by Practice:

University of Exeter:
Title: Emotion in the Digital Age: Bergson’s Creative Emotion and Metaphysical Methods for Digital Video Production. (Awarded 2013)
Tutors: Professor Susan Hayward (Film Theorist)
Professor Don Boyd (Film Producer/ Director)
Internal examiner, Doctor Will Higbee (University of Exeter) and external examiner, Professor Rob Stone (Birmingham University)

Overview of PhD:

An investigation into the nature of emotion and its importance for our creative process; using an interdisciplinary approach combining philosophy, art theory, film theory and video/ film making technology and practice.

My thesis explored Bergsonian notions of duration and the unrepresentable characteristics of creative emotion. Contemplating emotion through Bergson’s duration assists my understanding of the measure of emotion’s quantitative multiplicity, the complexity of its qualitative multiplicity and its creative potential. The application of these ideas to the Deleuzian cinematic concepts of the movement-image and time-image, allowed me to explore digital and analogue cinematic techniques alongside the characteristics of representable and unrepresentable emotion.