‘Mediterranea’ Installation view, DOK Artist Space, The Steel Shed, Edinburgh 2017.

Mediterreanea was a site specific exhibition at DOK Artist Space, located in the Steel Shed at the port of Leith, Edinburgh. The exhibition drew upon Kwants ongoing work documenting the Mediterranean migration crisis. Comprising silk screen and moving image, the exhibition brought the migration crisis right into the heart of the historic port. The Steel Shed - a listed building - was formerly a ship outfitting building. Curated by Olivia Turner (Artist, Curator and founder of DOK Artists Studios).

Further Information:

Kwant’s bold and colourful screen prints playfully reinterpret the contemporary socio-political migrant crisis often focusing upon a central character who’s taken out of their context. Dynamic compositions are executed with newspaper-like halftone quality; bodies contorted, are edited and reinterpreted. Figures embody positions of victory, aspiration, resignation and defeat. Brightly coloured backgrounds are carefully hand painted using everyday household paint, chosen specifically for their idealised titles - “Utopia Beckons, Fare Thee Well, No Boundaries, Sundown, Adrift at Sea, California Dreaming, Golden Rays, English Primrose...” The resulting body of work aims to open up tensions and paradoxes between the subject and their designated titles. Kwant speaks of this tension as ‘opening up a space to question wider narratives, how identity is constructed and ultimately how history is recorded.’ The work is intended to be presented in sets or groups, allowing for a multiplicity of readings and interpretations to emerge.