Salvaging hope: Representing the objects of Mediterranean migration

Abstract

This article contributes to a scholarly conversation about humanitarianism and the representation of refugees by interpreting how and why visual artists use maritime safety objects to intervene in the European migrant crisis. The amalgamated detritus of life jackets, parts of rubber dinghies, and other refuse from migrant crossings that have been left behind on the island of Lesbos, Greece have inspired contemporary artistic interpretations. This article argues that images and installations of emergency floatation devices mobilize affective qualities associated with maritime survival objects as a way to convey the promise and failure of contemporary nation-states to maintain humanitarian goals toward refugees. Analyzing Ai Weiwei's film and installations in Central Europe as a case in point, this article argues that representations of such devices draw critical attention to discourses of crisis, emergency, safety, and waste. This article challenges the idea that these kinds of object-centered artistic works further marginalize refugees. It proposes instead that such works function as powerful mediators in bringing together places proximate and distant from the scene of crisis, and in doing so promote a kind of ethical solicitation for change. Looking critically at these projects, this article closes by assessing the possibilities and limits of such object-centered appeals.