Maheen Atif and Anna Gersh

Migrant Women: A Litany for Survival

In narratives concerning migration, even honest representations often only tell half the story. Women have largely been left out of portrayals of migration in the media, in academia, in activism and in art. This work visually expresses aspects of migrant women’s daily lives in connection to feelings of belonging and disbelonging. By exploring the daily aspects of migrant womanhood, including the seemingly mundane, this work seeks to aestheticize objects and experiences which either aid or prohibit women’s feelings of belonging in the city and in Europe. Our research-creation focused on women from the Global South and questioned the impact and use of public and private space, and on the different forms of navigating the multiple discriminations these women face, including both recent migrants as well as minority women whose ancestors were migrants and who are still marked as Other.

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“for those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going in the hours between dawns looking inward and outward
at once before and after seeking a now that can breed futures
like bread in our children’s mouths so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours”

excerpt. Litany for Survival, Audre Lorde

Watercolour Paintings, 2017