From Sea to Dawn

Using over 2000 altered frames of footage, From Sea to Dawn intervenes in and subverts media imagery of migrants and representations of the European refugee crisis. Often sensational at the expense of those fleeing war and disaster, the abundance of such imagery throughout popular media outlets can desensitise and de-humanize the people requiring support, and who do not have access to means of self-representation themselves.

This video work becomes a moving ‘painting’ – a painted and inky surface that interrupts, distorts, and mirrors in on itself like a Rorschach image (a psychological test that looks like a butterfly image made from inkblots which is then analysed using psychological interpretation or algorithms) or the visual language drawn from Islamic cultural imagery, architecture and geometry. From Sea to Dawn both protects the subjects and their devastating journey, while also imbuing the news source material with possibilities of beauty and empathy.