The text below by Margareta Kern was first published as part of the Refugee Week 2007 Blog.

What Remains? Visual Arts and Refugees

In 2003, coinciding with the Refugee Week, I organised an exhibition by the title of ‘Leave to Remain’ whose main aim was to bring together work by contemporary visual artists who are also refugees and asylum seekers. This writing is as much reflection on that experience as it is an invitation to explore questions that arose from it.

I was becoming increasingly frustrated at the continuous negative portrayal of refugees and asylum seekers in the media, and even more upset at the increasingly xenophobic immigration policies of the Labour government. Having come to the UK fleeing a civil war in the former Yugoslavia (in 1992); then training at Goldsmiths’ College and now practicing as a visual artist, I was keen to open up those two areas - my political status with my creative work. By organising an exhibition by artists who have been forced to migrate, I wanted to provide visibility to their/our works and issues they/we were grappling with, and to try and shift the negative perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers. With a zest and certain kind of naiveté of a person who has never organised an exhibition before, I jumped into deep waters.
The exhibition showed eleven artists whose works ranged from painting, sculpture to installation, connected by a thread of enquiry into notions of belonging, home, identity and displacement. After three showings, one of which was at the BBC London, Leave to Remain eventually grew into an initiative; I continued to edit an e-letter showcasing art and cultural events whose subjects were connected to issues of forced migration and a group artists most of whom participated in the exhibition continued to meet.

However, after two years of editing the nEws-letter, speaking at conferences and advocating the issues of refugees and the arts I started questioning my position as a visual artist who was becoming increasingly labelled as a ‘refugee artist’. A pattern was beginning to emerge - when there were events relating to the refugees and/or arts, I would be called upon. And as much as that meant more visibility, it was beginning to concern me what kind of visibility, under whose conditions and who is benefiting.

Looking around me, several funding streams have sprung up, that were in one way or another based on ethnicity and race - such as ‘decibel’ an “Arts Council England initiative which works to support and raise the profile of artists of African, Asian and Caribbean descent in England” (source: www.artscouncil.org.uk) and ‘Diversify Project’ which “was set up by the MA in 1998 to encourage minority-ethnic people to take up a career in museums and galleries” (source: www.mla.gov.uk). An organisation such as Refugees and the Arts initiative has begun its work, using the term ‘refugee artist’ with an apparent lack of self-consciousness: “RAI aims to support refugee artists who wish to continue their professional development and contribute to the cultural wealth in the United Kingdom.” (source: www.artsinitiative.org.uk)

An art world is incredibly competitive and complex, one needs to not only excel in one’s work, but also weave a web of contacts. It is tough to rise above the noise and be heard. So, it can be especially difficult for an artist whose English is a second language, who has gone/is going through a trauma, and whose political status is in limbo adding to an overwhelming insecurity of financial survival.

Aligning oneself with one label or another (‘refugee artist’, ‘culturally diverse’) may provide an artist with opportunities (funding and exhibitions) that may not be ordinarily available for a complex set of reasons (class, language). In her recent report Boxed In, Sonya Dyer further explores the impact of class on accessibility for black and minority ethnic artists. “Very few graduates from non-white backgrounds choose to study a 'creative arts' subject at university but this is because of class, not race. The majority of black people, like white working class people, cannot afford the typically low-paid work in the arts.” (full report can be downloaded from: www.manifestoclub.com)

Access to funds creates opportunities and possibilities to make work, to take risks, to see and be seen. However, it can also further marginalise those artists by showcasing them only in those exhibitions and initiatives that highlight their ethnicity or political status, whilst keeping the mainstream at bay.

As Richard Hylton writes in his recent book The Nature of the Beast: “From ‘ethnic arts’ to ‘culturally diverse arts’, Black artists have been, if not in large, at least significant numbers, consistently accepting of what I would consider to be dubious forms of arts patronage. Participating in poorly conceived exhibitions and initiatives reflected their apparent complicity with a system that consciously or unconsciously, was marginalising the practices of the majority of these same Black artists”, (The Nature of the Beast: Cultural Diversity and the Visual Arts Sector, a study of policies, initiatives and attitudes 1976 – 2006)

When it comes to Arts and Refugees, it would seem that funding bodies are recognising that “the interest in this area of work, on the part of policy makers, funders, arts practitioners and the voluntary sector, has grown considerably.’’ Arts Council England in partnership with the Baring Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Trust have recently commissioned a report into ‘Arts and Refugees in the UK- History, Impact and Future’. What the report will set out to outline when it is published in Autumn 2007, is “a coherent history of this field of work, since the mid 1980s; a summary of the research into the impact of the work on its intended beneficiaries, on arts practitioners and on policy makers and funders and recommendations for the future development of this work.”

I was intrigued to hear that such report was being commissioned and wonder what its implications will be for arts practitioners? Judging by the past behaviour of funding bodies to separate in order to empower, I need to be forgiven for my cautiousness. I wander if it will formalise labels such as ‘refugee arts’ or ‘refugee artist’ and further marginalise those artists that tick the box, in order to simply get on and make art.

Organising Leave to Remain exhibition has been an empowering experience and part of its power derived from the fact that it was self-organised and self-initiated with the first showing funded mostly through a fundraising walk. It was a necessary rite of passage, allowing me to move on and question the efficacy of such activity. I remain passionate about my interest in the way politics on the grand scale influences our personal lives, focusing on those questions through my practice as a visual artist. However, I also remain aware of the precarious balance between art and politics, and between policies that control the arts from those that allow it to flourish.

© Margareta Kern, 2007
www.margaretakern.com

Leave to Remain, is part of the name for a several types of visas allowing an applicant to stay in the UK for a limited period or an indefinite period of time. Exceptional leave to remain (ELR) was a different category of visa and was granted to those category of people whom did not fit into the convention of being a 'refugee' but still could not be returned. However, "From 1st April 2003, exceptional leave will no longer be granted.  For unsuccessful asylum seekers who nevertheless have a need for international protection or have other truly compelling reasons for not being removed, Humanitarian Protection (HP) or Discretionary Leave (DL) may be granted. In non-asylum cases there will remain scope for leave to be granted outside the Immigration Rules other than on HP or DL grounds - this will be called Leave Outside the Rules (LOTR)."*
*Source: IND web-site

FOREWORD by Alex Rotas

An exhibition of 'refugee artists' immediately raises many questions. Is there such a community? For an artist, there are both constraints and advantages in tying together your political and professional status. What you gain in visibility, in cohesion, you lose in the boundaries it puts upon this visibility. The label 'refugee artist' may lend you authority with respect to suffering, displacement and loss, but the supposed authenticity of your voice may be lost if instead you choose to speak of pleasures and joy.

As viewers, we bring expectations with us when we come to an exhibition of work by 'refugee artists'. These expectations may be related to the content of what we expect to see, the standard of what we expect to see, indeed to the sort of space in which we expect to see such work displayed. Like all expectations, they tell us rather more about ourselves than about the refugee artists! The word 'refugee' carries loaded and shifting meanings which we bring with us when we enter the gallery space but the exhibition itself can alter these loadings in interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. How do we respond do these works? Do we learn from them, do they challenge us and how and on what levels do we enjoy them?

Leave to Remain deliberately seeks to raise these issues and, indeed, many, many more.

Tell us your views in the Visitors' Book*. Reflect, ponder, tell your friends, and, above all, enjoy.


Alex Rotas, lecturer in visual culture, the University of the West of England, researcher, 'refugee artists', panel member Leave to Remain.

*Please e-mail us your views to: views@leavetoremain.org

WHY IS LEAVE TO REMAIN HERE? by Margareta Kern

Feeling increasingly frustrated by the negative portrayal of asylum seekers and refugees, an idea to do something that would change that, has been etched in my mind for quite some time. But what, I have found myself wondering, can tip the balance and dispel some of the undermining misconceptions of the refugee community. What has the power to stand independently from any government, any ideology, any immigration policy, any school of thought?

Being an artist and a refugee, organising an exhibition where my fellow artists who share the experience of exile can communicate, explore and challenge those experiences, seemed like a natural progression. Little did I know just how complex the issues surrounding asylum and refugees would prove to be, once the lid was taken off the ‘refugee’ box! Or indeed how problematic a situation can be for an artist who is also an asylum seeker and/or refugee to carve a successful artistic career in this country.

‘Leave to Remain’ does not pretend to provide answers to these questions. This is not its aim. Its aim is to show the work of the artists who were willing to knowingly frame their work within the bracket of ‘refugee art’ precisely in order to raise some these questions and to challenge that frame. The work of each one of them is testament to the complex, difficult and extraordinary experience of exile. Leave to Remain provides these artists, with a special sort of visibility and a temporary ‘home’.

I hope ‘Leave to Remain’ will remain a platform for such visibility.


Margareta Kern, June 2003.