What is a Climate Refugee?
For its first themed journal RUYA MAPS looks at ‘Climate Refugees’, on International Migrants Day, RUYA MAPS looks at Yinka Shonibare’s Refugee Astronaut to reflect on ‘What is a ‘climate refugee’?
Yinka Shonibare CBE, Refugee Astronaut II, (2016), Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, net, possessions, astronaut helmet, moon boots and steel baseplate. 186 x 87 x 103 cm. Photo by Stephen White.
It is International Migrants Day, a day observed by the United Nations to salute those that work to overcome adversity and will a better life for themselves. This year, the UN’s theme is ‘We Together’ which they use to focus on stories of social cohesion. It sees the 272 million migrants who are all “living new lives and building new communities in every corner of the globe” as individuals within communities.
Yinka Shonibare’s sculpture Refugee Astronaut could be read as a homage to these migrants. The life-size figure stands mid-stride, although it is unclear where they are going, with one foot ahead you can be sure they are moving forward. This reflects the courage and “expression of the individual’s will” that the UN has rightfully recognised as the best of the human spirit. Clad in its heavy duty boots and protective spacesuit, the astronaut appears prepared, but its ominous helmet counters any suggestions of safety. This shiny black surface hides the astronaut’s identity and reflects the viewer, and their potential future, in a faint reminder that as climate related hazards worsen those of us forced to move by disasters will grow.
It does not look like the Astronaut is embarking on a standard intergalactic mission; shoulders squared, their arms hold on to a backpack in which they have pulled together a jumble of objects. This eclectic assortment suggests that the Astronaut has been suddenly forced to leave home. Refugee Astronaut appears futuristic, but the presence of familiar objects, such as cooking equipment and books, makes it likely that the Astronaut is carrying their life on their back - recalling the many migrants in the same situation today.
Working across mediums, Yinka Shonibare’s artworks explore the legacy of post-colonialism within contemporary experiences of globalisation. Western expansion greatly contributed to environmental destruction, and established systems of natural resource exploitation and capitalism that continue to oppress communities. The sculpture is clad in Nigerian print wax fabric, a signature material in Shonibare’s work that he uses due to its complex colonial history as an imported Dutch product. In this way the sculpture references histories of migration and it also adds to them by subverting exploratory travels’ association with colonial values. Rather than set out to conquer the world the Refugee Astronaut is a nomadic figure “just trying to find somewhere that’s still habitable.”
With the growing climate crisis, the earth’s position as a habitable, nurturing refuge is being challenged. Some seek a solution in colonising another planet, an idea that has moved from the realm of sci-fi into possibility as projects like SpaceX or exhibitions like the Design Museum’s ‘Moving to Mars’ show. For the time being, however, the Astronaut is a migrant like any other; a cosmonaut stuck on earth, the figure has been separated from its intended environment. Like refugees the world over, it has sought to adapt to the challenges of its situation. The Refugee Astronaut may be alone, but the migrants that International Migrants Day recognise join our communities and remake them through mutual effort and with mutual benefit.
#WeTogether #MigrantsDay
You can see Refugee Astronaut on display at the Wellcome Collection’s gallery ‘Being Human’ in London, alongside other artworks and projects that explore trust, identity and health.