Statement of Asylum
‘On Tuesday 23rd April 2024 the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 was passed in a big move forward to deter entry of asylum seekers to the UK by threatening to deport them to Rwanda.
On Thursday 16th May 2024 I stood in the spitting rain with my son on my shoulders and watched as a van the Home Office had sent took seven asylum seekers from Margate, where they had become part of a community, to the Bibby Stockholm. I could not stop thinking, ‘so many people don’t understand what this means.’
On Thursday 23rd May 2024 I got sent a link to Artcry’s fast response political artwork funding. I texted Dan Thompson, DO YOU THINK I CAN PROJECT A POEM BY ASYLUM SEEKERS ONTO THE TURNER? He said, yeah.’
— Kat Lewis, Founder and CEO of Undertow
Statement of Asylum: Remix was created by Undertow with support from ARTCRY and supported by
Studio Jon Spencer - Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN) - Kent Poetry - Dan Thompson Studio - Pizza 2 Night -Marine Studios -Co-relate - IMIX
and many more local people.
Behind the scenes
Find out how we went about creating Statement of Asylum: Remix, projecting it onto the Turner Contemporary. You can read more about the process on ART CRY’s website here