From Leavings/Belongings, 2021
Cloth, mixed media, vinyl text
Dimensions variable

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2021, 82.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence and climate changes.

Leavings/Belongings is a multifaceted collaboration between Harriet Bart and Yu-Wen Wu (Boston). Begun in 2016, this project aims to amplify the voices of refugee and immigrant women. The iteration included in the exhibition, Material Matters, features a selection of bundles created by hundreds of displaced women from around the world. These bundles are symbolic of all they have lost, and their hopes and dreams for the future. Some women chose to write a story, or message on their bundle. The bundles are part of their testimony.

• Bart + Wu website

Exhibitions:

• Material Matters / October 18 - November 19, 2021 / Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art, Minneapolis MN

• Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Global Refugee Crisis / September 1, 2020 - January 24, 2021 / SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico