During the year 2016 I was very affected by the images I was seeing on social media and International news on TV. The bombardment of images relating to the Syrian refugee crisis was constantly on my head and I had to develop an Art work which would raise awareness locally in Gibraltar in solidarity with this humanitarian crisis. I started to collect images from social media and I developed a film/ slideshow which told the story of the journey that the refugees were taking from fleeing Syria, to crossing the Mediterranean and then facing the reality of all the problems that they would encounter in Europe.

My idea was to create a wall made out of travel suitcases in the centre of one of the halls at the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery in Gibraltar. On the wall there are projected images relating to the refugee crisis that is hitting Europe and on the other side there is a continuous projection of all European MP’s who are responsible for policy making on issues relating to Immigration and Refugees. The wall can also be seen to be a raft which could sail across the Mediterranean.

I made an appeal to the local community through social media asking people to lend a suitcase which would then be used to create the wall/ raft. The Suitcases are meant to represent the struggle of the refugees who flee from their country in desperation for a better and safer future and the wall is a metaphor representing the European frontiers.

As a Gibraltarian myself whose dad was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland during the evacuation of the Gibraltarians during World War 2, I have a resilient and emotional attachment to this important historical event. All that the evacuees took with them was a suitcase, so I felt that symbolically the suitcases in this work had a very strong emotional connection to the struggle that the Gibraltarian families went through during WW2 and the connection to the situation that all the Syrian refugees were experiencing. It unites the past and the present to highlight the atrocities of war and how history keeps repeating itself.

As an artist I am interested in the impact of social politics, current affairs and the fragility of human existence. I have always been interested in developing creativity in all possible ways, so as to cultivate a visual vocabulary that will help me to express myself and nurture a dialogue between myself, the viewer and modern society.