Belinda Newick
Hope

We have a duty to look after each other.
Remember no one chooses to be a refugee.
Let us honour our shared humanity.

Island Welcome has been a journey of inquiry, deep sadness and yet also hope. Cyclical like a garland, I kept returning to the visual of being fenced in, protected from and protected by. Listening to many refugee voices repeated this language of caging in and restriction, of transitory space and always mention of metal wire.

Researching sources of Razor Wire, I was presented with a language of separation, protection and defense with a right to inflict harm, tear clothing, all in order to keep safe. So I began with 56 barbs for every 10-metre length of wire.

For my garland in place of metal barbs, origami butterflies as a symbol of freedom and transformation, the capacity to unfold and take new form in the world.

Fifty six butterflies folded in stainless steel mesh, some printed with the Articles 1. & 14. from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, suspended on ten metres of wire.

Article 1:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards another in a spirit of brotherhood”

Article 14:
Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”

Neckpiece awarded 2019 Lynne Kosky Award for Contemporary Jewellery, Victorian Craft Awards.