Seeking refuge

It was on a beach in Greece in 2016 that Ben Quilty observed a ‘high-tide mark’ of bright orange, in the form of hundreds of discarded life jackets. Abandoned by those who had crossed the Aegean Sea to seek asylum, a crossing during which more than 3000 refugees and asylum seekers have drowned, the life jackets are mostly cheap imitations made illegally and lethally (with contents that absorb water). The ‘hi-vis’ luminous orange that marks this littoral zone has ironically, in Australia at least, rendered refugees invisible. Quilty has painted portraits that feature empty orange life jackets. Recently donated to the Art Gallery of South Australia, twelve such paintings carry as their titles the names of individual asylum seekers who committed suicide between 2016 and 2017 while held in detention.