Artist shows the tragedy of refugee crisis
Miami made the scenes of people fleeing crisis out of paper mache
When she decided to leave war-torn Iraq, it was after Saddam Hussein was brought down.
“Everything was stolen from us, the new regime, they took our property, money, left us with nothing.”
After briefly living in Syria, aged 44, she moved to Scotland.
The sacrifice was her husband decided to remain in Iraq and the family entered a painful separation.
But she explained that she had a choice, she left her home country to give her two boys, then aged 10 and 12, a better life.
She continued: “It was stressful, we left war, but I had a visa, I had a ticket.
“I lost my identity, but I am immigrant, not a refugee.
“My brother was living here and he encouraged us to come so he could look after me and help me to start a new life.”
Miami moved to near Errol and finally built up to buying a house in the Oakbank area of Perth.
Home now is an elegant Arabic oasis, hung with her paintings and early experiments in sculpture beside Persian glass and distinctive carpets.
When her children ‘grew up and flew,’ Miami wanted to revisit her creativity.
In 2009 she started working in studios and workshops.
Then, wanting a qualification to prove her skills, she enrolled at Perth College UHI and just recently, completed a MA degree in art.
“Last year I did this piece, ‘The Roots Will Remain,’ it was a person with roots coming out of their feet and fingers.
“That sculpture was the start of the ‘Greatness of Silence’ project, I realised my need to explore the upheaval of leaving, the hope of parents that things will be better in some other place, but the tragedy of losing everything.
“This is the terrible situation for refugees.
“The people I portrayed are simply presented.
“They have no words - they are silent - but look behind them, there is a big story.”
She chose a material that was going to be lighter than stone and worked in paper mache as a medium for her epic sculpture project because it was easy for her to move around her studio at the college.
She does not want the ‘Greatness of Silence’ series to ever be sold “as that would mean breaking the groups of people up, I don’t want to do that.”
She views them more as a group, to be passed on through generations “until such a time as war no longer exists”, keeping the subject from being ignored.
Miami told the PA that if the worldwide refugee issue was somehow solved, she would put her paper mache work outside to let it dissolve in the rain.
“How likely is that though?” she said sadly.
“Now that the figures have been seen around a few places, I wish there was a way they could be better know further afield, have a permanent place in public, and be cast full-size, in metal.”
“My message is just respect the pain of the refugees,” Miami concluded.
The pain of separation is a heartfelt theme: until a reunion just before her final college examination this May, her family had not met and been all together for eight years.
“It was great, but I don’t know when we can be together again.”
Miami Moshin will give a speech at 2pm on Saturday, July 22 to mark the new exhibition at Bowerswell House, located across the river from Perth city centre.