Billboard from the Iceberg Series

Juliana Abait, Argentinian

Billboard from the Iceberg Series, 2016

This is a piece from Abait’s Iceberg series created in 2017. This is one of many pieces that combines photographs of icebergs with the addition of a pastels and pencils over the photograph to create a surreal image. The artist hopes to use these icebergs as a metaphor for the wandering migrant, working to overcome the hurdles and burdens of leaving home. This image uses a billboard as the focal point and juxtaposition to the natural landscape. The billboard stands out as extremely human and an example of human ingenuity to build a structure on a platform that will soon be melted and underwater. Additionally, the dull shades of grey and blue in the water give the image an overwhelming sense of monotony, only amplified by the blank billboard. Label by Sam Dutilly

Las Patronas

Ronaldo Schemidt, Venezuelan

Las Patronas, 2018

This photograph shows women from the group Las Patronas giving food to migrants traveling by train through Mexico to the United States. This train is often called “the beast” because of how dangerous the journey is for migrants. These women have been working for over a decade to provide food to migrants on this route and by doing so save many of their lives. As more and more people are displaced due to climate change, community efforts like these will become more important in keeping migrants safe; especially as prejudice against migrants grows. Label by Becca Gurysh

Climate change is transforming global migration

Vicky Leta, American

Climate change is transforming global migration, 2020

Leta’s illustration demonstrates how climate disasters are often a driving force for migration, degrading refugee’s homelands at the hands of climate change and transforming the way global migration occurs. Her illustration utilizes color to symbolize how migrants search for greener pastures, often literally and metaphorically. However, she portrays how many migrants move due to necessity, not by choice, by having the young boy look backwards towards his burning home. Often the residents of countries accepting (or rejecting) refugees don’t understand this disheartening truth, furthering increasing the struggles of misplaced peoples. Increased wildlife intensity and occurrence is only one of many outcomes of climate change that have reshaped and exacerbated global migration. Label by Jordan Hadlock

Raft of Lampedusa

Jason de Caires Taylor, American

Raft of Lampedusa, 2016

“You have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land

No one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now

i don’t know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere is safer than here”

-     Warsan Shire, “Home”

When I read this poem, I knew that I wanted to find an art piece that commemorates refugees that die at sea. Such a deeply tragic reality, where desperation leads to people putting themselves in risky situations for the hope of a better life. According to Paul Van Blum’s article, hundreds of refugees have drowned in shipwrecks off of the Italian coast in just 2023 alone. Cases of refugee shipwrecks happen all of the time, rarely does it make the news, and rarely does anyone pay attention when it does. However, Taylor’s underwater museum brings light to this issue. Made from marine grade cement, this piece sits underwater, based on “the Raft of Medusa,” a famous piece which highlights the doomed fate of shipwrecked sailors. The piece is of a unsturdy boat carrying 13 passengers, all of which look tired, and potentially malnourished and dehydrated. This boat leads them deeper into the unknown ocean, with no true destination. This shows the risks that refugees will take in order for the potential of hope. Label by Riley Kelley