William Kentridge (b. 1955, Johannesburg)

Refugees (You Will Find No Other Seas)

2018, lift ground aquatint etching on handmade paper, mounted on raw cotton cloth. Plate: 163.8 x 238.1 cm; cloth: 169.9 x 242.9 cm; frame: 179.7 x 252.1 x 5.1 cm.

Edition of 14 plus 1 artist's proof

Photo by William Kentridge Studio. Courtesy of the artist and William Kentridge Studio. ©William Kentridge.

This aquatint etching is one of a series of 36 on sheets of paper designed to be mounted together onto a single cloth in one long image. It depicts a tragic scene which takes place almost daily on the seas between Africa and Europe.  A boat, overloaded with men, women and children, crosses open water. The cloth on which the prints are mounted evokes the material in which these people tie up the few possessions they bring with them. The enormous risk they take is emphasised by the stark black marks, and the lack of identifying features turns them into symbols of the tens of thousands who make these desperate journeys in search of a better life. The oars recall those on the slave galleys which carried earlier generations to Europe.