17 Dec 15. New installation Flight by acclaimed war artist Arabella Dorman. A salvaged dinghy to be suspended in the nave of St James’s Church as part of the latest project by Arabella Dorman, Flight, An installation by Arabella Dorman from 21 December 2015 – 2 February 2016.
A salvaged dinghy, together with life jackets is to be suspended above the congregation in the nave of St James’s Church, Piccadilly in response to the humanitarian crisis of forced displacement. The boat on display was made to take 15 people but carried 62 refugees, many from Syria, across 10km of rough sea from Assos, Turkey, to Lesvos. This year, more than 3,100 people have drowned in the attempt to flee their homeland
Flight is an installation artwork by war artist Arabella Dorman, in response to the humanitarian crisis of forced displacement across the world. Together with three life jackets – two adults’ and a child’s – a salvaged dinghy will be suspended in mid-air in the nave of St James’s throughout the Christmas period and New Year. Meanwhile, further lifejackets will transform the traditional nativity display into scenes Arabella witnessed on the island’s beaches.
Dorman travelled to Lesvos in September 2015 to work with the refugees and was deeply affected by the plight of the thousands of men, women and children arriving daily in small rubber dinghies. Dorman has salvaged one of these dinghies and the lifejackets worn by refugees to create this installation and bear witness to what she saw. The boat on display was made to take 15 people but carried 62 refugees, many from Syria, across 10km of rough sea from Assos, Turkey, to Lesvos’s northern shoreline. As is the case with many refugee dinghies, the boat was steered by an arbitrarily appointed refugee with no maritime experience and powered by a small 30-horsepower outboard motor. The vessel and engine are unsuitable for the conditions and the load: many motors fail midway, and many unstable dinghies capsize in the waves.
The setting of the boat, dramatically lit from below, inverted and angled towards the altar, invites the viewer to embark upon their own spiritual journey, while a suspended interplay of light, form and shadows above the nave reflect the uncertain, rootless and volatile experience of life as a refugee. The suspension of the dinghy above the nave mirrors the tradition of hanging boats and symbolic objects from church ceilings and links Latin navis (ship) to nave. Meanwhile the three lifejackets suspended alongside the dinghy evoke the flight of the Holy Family from the Middle East into Egypt in search of refuge.
The boat, many of which are slashed on landing, remains partially deflated to illustrate the fragility and disposability of the boat, representative also of how the lives of refugees are all too often viewed. Meanwhile, the absence of figures reflects the transience of human life and pays homage to those thousands lost at sea during the crossing. Through this absence, the work’s significance is rendered timeless, ubiquitous and universally applicable.
The 62 people on this boat made it to safety in Europe after being pulled from the water by the Greek coastguard as it was sinking. This journey costs each person $1,000 – 5,000. The human smugglers are often armed and violent, terrorising refugees waiting on the beaches to board, and firing warning shots to scare anyone complaining about the overcrowding of their boat. Lifejackets are not included. Most of those sold on the black market are merely light buoyancy aids, ineffectual against the surging Aegean; many are falsely branded and sold at higher prices. These cheaply made fake jackets become absorbent once submerged for a while, acting like sponges and weighing the wearer down.
At a time of year when many celebrate the family and friends we have, Flight asks us to consider our responsibilities as fellow humans, and to remember those who have lost their families, friends and homes.
The reverend Lucy Winke