Fewer I: 8417 Cells
In 2020 (figures from 4/1/2021) 8,417 migrants, some of them children, arrived on English shores in small boats. In this period, 5,000 migrants tried to leave France for the UK, but French border control stopped them. We will never know how many people left France. Some were not recorded by the English. Others drowned in the Channel before reaching England. These risky journeys highlight the flaws in the EU and UK immigration systems. There has been a big rise in small boat Channel crossings. This is due to ongoing and new global crises, and the UK immigration system's hostile policies.
Arriving immigrants are often seen as a mass. The media and some who don't welcome them refer to them as such. Adjectives like 'less' are being used with 'less immigrants'. This treats immigrants as an uncountable mass, not as individuals.
The UK's hostile immigration policy has real effects on immigrants' daily lives. Those who reach the English shore face the UK immigration system. They have limited rights. If they are not returned to their country, they are often detained.
To honour the individuality of each and every person who arrived on a small boat, I started making hand-rolled clay spheres. I made 8,417 spheres. Asylum seekers undertake those dangerous journeys as there are no safe and legal alternatives. My work is not about glorification of the individuals, nor is it about victimisation. It refuses to see them as a mass. It reminds us of our uniqueness, no matter our country of origin. I also aim to question the meaning of natural and political boundaries. This is due to today's migration routes and the original goals of the EU. It also relates to the new post-Brexit UK.
The installation has 8,417 hand-rolled clay spheres of different sizes (5-20 mm in diameter). They arrange themselves in a space of about 9 m² in no particular pattern.
*In 2021, at least 28,431 migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats. The number of people who made the journey in 2022 was 45,755 and in 2023 was 29,437.