RAFT

RAFT is an exhibition that rethinks the relationship between Britain’s waters and the wider world, through the ongoing movements of people across and between these spaces. The exhibition investigates how people think about the role of water in relation to diasporas in different places. It challenges us all to rethink this in ways that strengthen international relations rather than breaking them down.

The exhibition’s name – RAFT – is highly symbolic. A raft is a small vessel used to move across water. It represents a journey. Rafts are often stored and inflated when required, or made in a way that is contingent on need. They are used both for adventure and for survival. The exhibition considers the nature of rafts and the media’s prevalent use of images of them by presenting different perspectives surrounding them as objects. In the same way that rafts can acquire different meanings, so too are migrants given various meanings by different people at different times and subjected to unfair hierarchies.

Just as the raft has been adapted to different purposes, so have societies across the world. For example, structures such as tents, have been employed by the homeless, by holidaymakers, and by refugees. The exhibition draws parallels between ongoing societal adaption and the intuitive processes through which artists produce their artworks. In the exhibition, there are reoccurring motifs such as flags and vessels which appear in different forms. There are also artworks emphasising the acts of tying things or hanging items.

The exhibition RAFT is both timely and important. Throughout history, people have frequently migrated to different places to seek a better life. ‘RAFT’ aims to shed new light on dominant historical narratives and open them up for discussion, whilst rethinking London and Great Britain’s centrality within this discourse. The idea of a journey is referenced further in the exhibition space at ROSL, where works are hung around a central staircase.

RAFT is curated by Susie Olczak.