In 2023, five women artists who survived war, conflict and persecution, came together as visual artists to present Tomorrow, a multi-media, studio exhibition. Developed as an IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commission in partnership with the Freedom Festival, the exhibition is an individual and collective response to the concept of ‘tomorrow’ as an enduring reference to hope, belief and self-determination and a way of looking to the future, together.
Collaborating long-term over many years with photographer and visual researcher Dr Lee Karen Stow, Tomorrow was collectively curated by Prof. Sarah Perks (Teesside University). The exhibition opened as part of Freedom Festival at Ferens Art Gallery in the centre of Hull, and on
show for a month in September 2023. The public programme of events included meet-the-artists Saturdays and an open panel discussion ‘Talking About Tomorrow’ with special guests from Afghanistan and Ukraine and chaired by Palestinian human rights activist, Basma El Doukhi.
In Tomorrow, Arafa Gouda (Sudan/Libya), Gaida Dirar (Sudan/Libya), Nisreen Barazi (Syria), Shuke Halake Aeroro (Ethiopia) and Faisa Omar (Somalia) as the Freedom Women Collective, use visual and textile art, sculpture, performance, poetry and photography to show that in every language, tomorrow can be a promise, a practical arrangement or a philosophical proposition.
The artists all contributed individual works to the exhibition. Arafa’s huge abstract paintings represent the emotions of her journey from Sudan and across the Sahara desert to Libya. Faisa’s traditional Somali dress, known as the dirac, is a celebration of her culture and a reflection of stoicism in adversity. Shuke’s siinque is a stick carried by Oromo women in Ethiopia as a symbol of peace. Gaida’s blue and white Sudanese thoubs represent both the suppression and independence of women in Sudan. Nisreen’s treasured photos decorate the branches of a life-size, life-like olive tree to symbolise the strength of a mother and her family. Compelling narratives and poems by the artists are presented in the artists’ languages of Sudanese, Arabic, Somali, Oromo and English.
At the heart of the exhibition is the artists’ 30-minute photofilm Tomorrow as an exploration of ownership of representation and memory of displacement. Edited by Hull-based filmmaker Jessica Eleanor Zschorn, the photofilm shows largely unseen, personal photos rescued from war and carried across borders. During years in transit countries or in limbo in refugee camps, the women preserved these photos and continued their photography as documentarians and witnesses, not bystanders. They photographed lived experiences, ordinary and extraordinary, in new and unfamiliar environments as they attempted to adapt to life as refugees.
Arafa actively documented the chaos and desolation of the UNHCR Salloum Refugee Camp in Egypt where she and her six children waited four years for a decision to be made on their futures. One of Gaida photos is of herself working as a nurse in the only clinic in the same refugee camp, a job that saved her from deep depression and taught her new skills to help others in distress. Shuke commissioned new family portraits in a makeshift refugee camp photo studio during her 13 years in the UNHCR Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Nisreen, who has documented every moment of her family’s flight from war-torn Syria, rescued her photo albums because “they were more important than my clothes.” Faisa fled Ethiopia carrying no possessions or family photos and yet began creating new digital memories with a cameraphone in the refugee camps of Syria, before fleeing war a second time.
These photos remained relatively private and unseen by outsiders, even close family members. The more the women talked and shared, the more images were found in bags, photo albums, on camera-phones and sent by loved ones scattered across the globe. When old, bruised laptops which had also survived war and forced displacement were fixed, they miraculously flickered to life and yielded forgotten photos and video clips.
As visual biographies, these precious, personal collections reveal lives lived before and during war. They show how a woman draws strength and resilience from within to resist, cope and survive the trauma, loss, and indignity of leaving all behind in search of safety. They show that becoming a refugee is a moment in a woman’s life, not her whole life. These perspectives go largely unseen, hidden behind dominant war photography, stereotypes and visual misrepresentations. As Gaida says, “I didn’t appear from nothing …. we carried our heritage with us”, and Arafa says “I existed”.
As the Freedom Women Collective we continue to meet, talk, eat, laugh, dance, cry and of course, document our lives and experiences and share visually through the power of photography. We think about creative ways to share Tomorrow with more audiences or, as Shuke says “with the world!”. We think about how we can visibly and actively advocate for peace, and a greater understanding and self-representation for women survivors of war and forced displacement through our dynamic mix of knowledge, creativity, skills, imagination, energy, enthusiasm and support.
About Tomorrow, a documentary
Documenting the creation of the Tomorrow exhibition by the Freedom Women Collective, this film captures the labour of love that went into putting this project together and giving this group of women a space and voice to tell their vital stories of upheaval and displacement.
[Introductory singing]
The Tomorrow Exhibition is an IWM 14-18 Now Legacy Fund commission in partnership with Freedom Festival Arts Trust.
Shuke Halake Aeroro, Freedom Women Collective: “My name is Shuke Halake Aeroro, I was born in Yavello town, which is southern Ethiopia, in Oromia region. For the political opinion, I left my country. I love my country. I am a business woman. I am not sit at home, because of this, I show Ethiopian photo.”
Lee Karen Stow, Freedom Women Collective: “It evolved organically, I would say, through years of working, creating, collaborating, making photographs, visiting exhibitions, watching what was happening in the world, especially involving women, girls being forcibly displaced through war and conflict.”
Arafa Gouda, Freedom Women Collective: “I believe that women have their own presence, existence and personality. She must engage in spaces and platforms such as this. And we, the Freedom Women Collective were given and had the space and are worthy of this space because women naturally exist and have a presence. I exist, therefore I should be present through my art, creativity and identity and be a distinct person in my community.”
Sarah Perks, the Freedom Women Collective: “We really hope that this work will inspire other women and artists who've been forced to flee their homes and countries to speak out and challenge misrepresentation. We also hope that tomorrow helps move beyond the repetitive single trauma story of refugee women, so typical of what's shown everywhere. An alternative perspective on who gets to tell what story and the messages and the media that were shown.”
Gaida Dirar: “It is great always to have that freedom to speak about yourself without thinking what people can think about me. We just showing ourselves and our story, our journey, because we had life before. We have very good life before. We were in education at the university, in work, and we was planning to remain in our land, in our houses and our belongings, our community friends, so we had full life, but now we managed it to create the new life here. So, we are part of the community now, so we need to accept each other.”
Sarah Perks: “We saw numbers of women and girls fleeing. Those numbers were rising. We watched as more women became numbers, statistics, visually shown as one thing, a refugee. Their whole histories, identities were erased and replaced with this label. Who they are and who they were before became invisible.”
Nisreen Barazi: “I feel everything that has past will be lost and what I carry with me is our memories. For me, my husband, children, and even for future grandchildren to see the difficult journey we have been through to get here. The only thing to show this is the photos and the memories. What we have gone through, the stages of our journey were like branches. Trees have so many branches and we have gone through many stages, the good ones, difficult ones, some made us happy, others made us cry but at the end of it all, our tree remained strong. Therefore, it represents us as a family tree.”
Sarah Perks: “At the core of the exhibition is the photo film Tomorrow. The artists Arafa, Nisreen, Gaida, Shuke and Faisa show largely unseen personal photos that reveal their lives lived before war. How they cope during journeys of upheaval and forced displacement. They carried these photographs across borders and kept them safe and pristine in transit countries and during many years spent in refugee camps. When no photos existed, when all was lost, Faisa began again and created new digital memories with her camera phone.”
Faisa Omar: “I always I say, what can we do? Because if I see for example, when I was in Syria, every day was bomb, bomb, bomb. If I think in my mind it’s coming everything, stress. But sometimes, usually if I’m dancing, I forget everything, I'm happy. That is, what is ‘What can we do?’”
Sarah Perks: Tomorrow resonates with everyone. It connects everyone. Tomorrow could be better than we ever imagined, or it could also mean that war, conflict, even fire, or flood due to climate change comes to your door. And then you have to leave everything you've ever known behind. Then, as Faisa says in her words, ‘What can I do?’ ‘You go.’
The Women's Photographic Collections show who she was before and who she became to survive the trauma, loss and indignity of leaving all behind in search of safety. Hers is a view that matters, from her perspective, from her gaze. This is what is rarely seen in mainstream media.
And as a curator, for me, it's important that the organisations that support this work, particularly funders and art galleries, learn how to work with and display these artists, understand their role and treat this work as they might do any new commission of contemporary art, and with the same care as treasured works within their collection.
They might also want to collect this type of work to document our times. So, we're always thinking about tomorrow, both as a promise and an uncertainty. Tomorrow's about hope, belief, resilience, resistance and self-determination. It's about survival.”
Nisreen Barazi: “Tomorrow is peace, safety, love, integration and our children’s future. When wars end, all humans live in peace and love and all barriers of hate or discrimination are broken, we return to being all humans under one sky. Religion, colour, country does not separate us.”
No mater our differences, tomorrow affects us all. Tomorrow never ends.
About Tomorrow
‘Tomorrow’ was an exhibition and film commission that took place at Ferens Art Gallery, Hull as part of Freedom Festival in September 2023.”
By Freedom Women Collective:
Arafa Gouda
(Sudan/Libya/Egypt/UK)
Faisa Omar
(Somalia/Syria/UK)
Shuke Halake Aeroro
(Ethiopia/Kenya/UK)
Gaida Dirar
(Sudan/Libya/Egypt/UK)
Nisreen Barazi
(Syria/Lebanon/Egypt/UK)
With
Lee Karen Stow (UK)
Sarah Perks (UK)