Ungrievable Lives

13 children’s dresses handmade from lifejackets the artist gathered from the Lifejacket Graveyard, Lesvos. Each dress represents 1 of the 13 million child refugees worldwide. Today as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, this number is now 15 million.

The dresses signify the absent body, evoking memory, absence and loss. Dirty, torn, patched together, a mixture of faded oranges, pinks and reds, at first glance they look like any small 3/4 year old dress a young child may wear, your child, my child, any child…

The scales, an ancient symbol of justice, signify the weighing of the body and soul, embodying the difficult question: “What is the differential value of a Western life compared to the value of the life of the refugee, arriving at the border of the Western world?”

The piles of sand at the bottom of each dress represent physical/ real, political/ fictional, and cultural/ symbolic borders and - like sands - are forever shifting and changing over time. Man-made boundaries, including linguistic, economic and social, conspire to create further division.

See the artwork on the 1st floor mezzanine between 3 and 29 September.

There is a performance of music composed by Charlotte Bray on Friday 12 Sep at St Mary's Church as part of Hay Music - Bray, inspired by Burraway’s art installation has responded to the migrant crisis with her very first string quartet. Tickets are available through Hay Music

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO THE CONCERT WITH HAY MUSIC