many years ago, my mother would send me down the steps of our house to snip away
lemon verbena or clambering rosemary – or show me the restrained way to cut the fatter and older
spring onions so they’d grow again, hollowed and dewy and cold because our home is always cold. I’d
bring them over to her chopping board, under the hanging lavender
under the crockery dotted with tiny flowers, window facing the Leith ValleyI remember the violence of life uprooted without secateurs. the nail or the pull …
to limp on by extended simile, displacement and its elaborations can be unpredictable:
refugee camps were set up at the border crossing for hugely over-projected numbers of
Syrian and Iraqi refugees in 2003. post-invasion, Anglo-American strategists assumed uproots
without offshoots: Iraqi and Syrian peoples would flee, then return when security was
reimposed.
but staying could mean guarding. leaving could mean never returning, like Palestinian
Arabs 50 years earlier. neighbouring countries could provide refuge over refugee
statusmy mother spent two months after my father emigrated to sort out visas and
to bring a short-haired, two-year-old girl out of No Longer Home. she uncoupled
the defining of person to place. she is braver than me: at school, I wrote
a fairy-tale about a princess moving castle. it has taken me weeks to
take down flat hangings, to admit I can’t take paints on moving dayeven in 1860, refugees were not collected in internment camps. the Ottoman state integrated
refugees, exiles, and migrants by way of self-settlement1. there were provisions to articulate
themselves: seeds, draft animals, a stretch of 17 acres where they would build their own
house, land holdings held for 15 years to protect against local investorsthere is a lot to spin out from ‘camps’ of temporariness: the earth
as tent of mortality swallowed up by life. how saving something
according to Heidegger doesn’t mean snatching it from danger, but setting it
free into its own being.2 guest, stranger, person in need – the huge need
beyond shelter: for education, for sustainable livelihood …perhaps I have been host and migrant. perhaps my mother dwells in
-longing, even after 20+ years of belonging. if local hospitality fits uneasy into
international protection, how can I meet a people not as passive, pliable – easily
managed – how can I be reshaped by them?
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones