Still Lives
Still Lives, Meanjin, Winter 2021.
A still life is both a life that has been arbitrarily arrested, and a life that is settled, at home. For a stateless person, life is stasis and frustrated potential. At the same time, the lack of citizenship can push people to ceaseless migration in search of a home—a place in which to settle and belong.
In this series, five people now in Australia and New Zealand tell about their lives.
They spoke with André Dao, Michael Green and Nicole Curby. In response, and in consultation with the storytellers, artist Sarah Walker has photographed a series of objects drawn from their stories. These objects represent each teller’s idea of home, coalesced into a still life image whose edges and forms are as enigmatic and irretrievable as the notion of belonging.
The project is part of ‘Voices of Statelessness’, a collaboration between Behind the Wire and the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the Melbourne Law School. The project was supported by the University of Melbourne’s Statelessness Hallmark Research Initiative Seed Funding Scheme and a University of Melbourne Engagement grant. Behind the Wire received additional support from a Creative Victoria development grant.