Initially, Waterbeds and Burial Grounds was intended as a response to the plight of the refugee and as a performative testament to those who have lost their lives at sea (waterbeds) and those who have made it to distant shores or across borders only to be detained and left in limbo inside detention facilities (burial grounds).
In the midst of an abundance of harrowing media imagery surrounding this issue, the work developed into a series of mini-narratives that acknowledged the difficulty in comprehending these experiences whilst seeking to identify their origins.
Thus, “waterbeds” began to suggest the varying stability of our comfort zones and “burial grounds” the denial, ignorance, displacement and desensitisation that act as borders obstructing our empathy.
