The Phillips Collection, Washington DC until September 22

If there is one exhibit on your list this summer, make this the one…soon.

The movement and dislocation of humans, globally and historically, is explored by 75 artists through film, painting, photography, sculpture, clothing, collage…… from 18th c African slave trade, migrant workers in the US, Ellis Island, Japanese American incarceration, Trail of Tears, Algerian war, human trafficking, Vietnam Boat People, and the present exodus from Libya, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Somalia, Turkey, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Myanmar, Bangladesh…….It is an overwhelming show; sad, poignant, confrontational, and creative.

“American Red Sea” by Paulo Nazareth, with embroidered and drawn map on Egyptian cotton muslin dress – worn on a multi-country journey from Brazil to New York, evokes protection from the sun and wearing one piece of simple clothing for an arduous and dangerous long journey on foot to freedom.

Again, the theme of human displacement and death is so powerfully expressed in clothing. Single pieces and collective piles evoke the intimacy and the bare necessity of simple protections that unite us as humans. It is common clothing; so familiar we feel it could be our own. A child’s soccer jersey, jeans, a fleece hoodie, canvas sneaker – beloved, tattered, adorned with names, life-saving, abandoned – these symbolize the human trails of hope, displaced from war, torture, climate change, racism, government policies.

Abandoned shoes with little hopeful sails…

: Francis Alys’s Study for Don’t Cross the Bridge Before you Get to the River.”

: Oil on encaustic paintings.

Caption: Meschac Gaba’s ‘Memorial for Drowned Refugees’, 2016, a simple pile of blankets and lanterns, to keep the spirits of the lost ones warm – the reenactment of a ritual in Benin becomes symbolic of the thousands who have lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean and those they leave behind.

Throughout the show is the tumbling, frightening, thunder of the sea – the body of water, we think of as being ‘neutral’ and non-political, but which tears families apart, drowns and destroys dreams. Flotsam clothing is scattered over the floor, as if strewn on a beach, with landscape photos of the ocean creating an environment of physical power and threat. This is what is left of those who tried to cross to a new life. Kader Attia’s 2015 installation speaks to what is not there – the people and forces us to remember the many migrants who have tried to cross the sea to safety.

: Caption: Liu Xiaodong’s 2015 painting depicts a group of Syrian refugees in Lesbos, in the ubiquitous blue of global clothing today, tucked under emergency blankets, each portrait executed in beautiful detail and nuance.

The film ‘Vertigo Sea’ by John Akomfrah, a triptych projection of the power of the sea and nature, tells the human and animal migration story through old whaling footage, photos of massacred slaves, present-day refugee images, trophy hunting, bounty hunting. The photography is magnificent. Allocate 45 minutes to enter this world of migration, movement and violent beauty before exploring the rest of the exhibit.

Adel Abdessemed’s 2007 room sized ‘Queen Mary, The Mother’, a fragile composite model of the ocean liner made of flimsy food tins, symbolizes risk and tragedy.

Caption: Benny Andrews, American artist retraces the Trail of Tears, when over 15,000 died in the 1830’s forced march of Native Americans from Florida west. Part painting, and collage, he uses cloth in a 3 dimensional manner to create the burden of bundles and precious shrouds people carry with them. He draws parallels to the victims of Katrina today, pointing out government responses throughout history to marginalized citizens.

For more about this exhibit:

Exhibit hours & info

Susan Stamberg review