Hi All,

Thanks for a really interesting discussion and I wish I was able to be there to see the exhibition for myself! Likewise, I am torn in reacting to this; it can be read as an innovative project to get publicity for the plight of refugees in what can be interpreted as an emotive and meaningful way but i do have some ethical questions regarding the display of the artefacts and also a big: what's the point? Mendel's explanations sound good and plausible, and I know artists have different aims and modus operandi than archaeologists, but I always jump to the end result. Does the recontextualisation and selection (as Rachael has pointed out refugee material culture that didn't fit with the refugee narrative being constructed was consciously excluded; this is a huge issue for archaeologists!) of this abandoned refugee material culture tell us anything real about the experiences of refugees we didnt already know? Does it humanise and individualise the previous owners in ways that counter some of the more flattening interpretations of our right wing press and politicians? Even, did it touch or create an emotional response in the viewer? I haven't seen the exhibition so I can't say for sure but I wonder if aestheticising their material culture into colourful, jagged, interesting shapes and patterns does any of that? In fact does it do the opposite? With regard to Paul's point, in my own opinion we can sometimes justify collecting discarded material culture without permission if we have no way of getting permission and we are trying to use it to enlighten and give voice to silenced or marginalised narratives. But that my own ethical stance, maybe not one for the ethics committees! I'd be interested to hear your opinions on whether this exhibition does these things. At the very least it provokes debate, I suppose!

Best wishes,
Laura

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From: Discussion List for Contemporary and Historical Archaeology <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Paul Graves-Brown <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 31 January 2017 10:25:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Gideon Mendel, London, Thursday 2nd.

 

I can think of at least 2 issues here to start with. The first is the issue of "discard" (which actually takes us back to Buchli and Lucas council house (c.f. Fewster 2013). No doubt many of these artefacts were discarded, but in some cases it may well be that it is more the case that their owners were deprived of them? The doll in particular suggests this to me. As we are thinking in relation to objects at Bowie shrines, there are questions as to the desires and intentions of their owners which are unresolved.

Secondly is the question of how these artefacts are displayed. The images on the Autograph website and Dan's photos make clear that these objects are not simply displayed as evidence of the situation in the Jungle, but as works in their own right. I can't really see how making a collage out of tooth brushes highlights the plight of refugee's. Rather it is the appropriation of artefacts in order to create "art". The exhibition blurb says
"He discovered that many refugees were hostile towards the camera and sceptical that it would ameliorate their situation. Many feared that being identified could undermine their asylum claims and lead to deportation. Mendel’s response was to turn his attention to lost objects on the ground, collecting them and trying to understand the patterns that emerged. Through the display of discarded objects, Mendel highlights the residents’ humanity."  So he's collecting artefacts because the refugees don't like him taking photos of them.

At present I feel that the collection of objects belonging to living people, where their permission is not explicitly granted, raises unresolved ethical/moral questions. At Greenham, Yvonne Marshall took the decision not to collect artefacts, but to leave them in situ. I'm not sure that this ethical question applies only to archaeologists - appropriation is appropriation.

P G-B

On 31/01/2017 09:50, Rachael Kiddey wrote:

[log in to unmask]" type="cite">

I know what you mean, PGB. There are some very tricky ethical questions that need thinking carefully about. This is one of the things I'm hoping to do as part of my role in our 'Architectures of Displacement' project https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/research/architectures-of-displacement

I went to a talk at the exhibition on Saturday where Mendel was in conversation with a young refugee support worker, an art historian and an anthropologist after he had given a tour of the exhibition. Mendel explained that he collected material as the bull-dozers were moving in. The people had already been displaced from the Jungle and what was left was discarded at the site before he took anything.

It was fascinating to hear how differently an artist talks about material culture e.g. I was interested to learn that he had purposefully chosen to collect items that were more ragged, burnt, broken and left the newest looking clothes because they didn't conjure, for him, what the people had been through. As archaeologists, we might be more interested in the fact that the material remains at the Jungle included lots of stuff that is expensive e.g. a Timberland jacket, Hunter wellies, all sorts of branded sportswear etc. As Dan Hicks remarked, in many ways, this is the archaeology of the wealthy because to reach Calais, people had to have parted with sometimes £20,000, paid to traffickers. Equally, the material culture exhibited at Mendel's show is stuff donated by well-meaning wealthy British and French people. There is also an important comment to be made on waste and wastefulness and the ways that these issues are illustrated via this site (a comment made by an audience member).

A further point made during the Q&A was that the stuff Mendel brought back to exhibit very often started off in the UK and is now allowed back in, while the people it was donated to are refused entry. Porous borders and materiality is something we'd like to look more at. Toothbrushes were seen by the artist as being particularly intimate because they contain the DNA of those displaced people. While the humanitarians said they were bogged down by toothbrushes, couldn't move for them, people used them once by the water stands and then discarded them.

There's a lot to think about. I would recommend going to see the stuff. It made me uncomfortable in places but it was sophisticated in places too. I'm not sure that we can hold all artists to the same high ethical standards that we like to set as archaeologists/anthropologists but we can talk about the differences and argue for what we think would be better ethical orientation.

Dr Rachael Kiddey
Postdoctoral Researcher
'Architectures of Displacement'
Pitt Rivers Museum
University of Oxford
tel: 07515 263 722
email: [log in to unmask]
skype: rachael.kiddey

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From: Discussion List for Contemporary and Historical Archaeology [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Paul Graves-Brown [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 31 January 2017 08:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Gideon Mendel, London, Thursday 2nd.

I wish I could attend this event, if nothing else because I think there are some serious ethical questions about this exhibition. I would urge those who do attend to ask the "artist" how he justifies essentially appropriating the possessions of displaced people, because I'm really not sure this can be justified.

Paul G-B

On 30/01/2017 22:50, James Dixon wrote:

Hi,

To all who have expressed an interest in coming to the Gideon Mendel exhibition in London on Thursday please note that since we sent out the last email the gallery has added an informal talk by Mendel at 1845 to their programme for the evening.

That being so, we will now be at the gallery until c. 1930, then to the Owl and Pussycat, details as per previous email.

Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

James & Sefryn

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