Bags of Hope
Temporary large-scale public sculpture for refugee awareness week at Southbank, London, 20-22nd June 2023
Collaboration with charity Migrant Help

Press

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"A backpack display has been unveiled in central London to "encourage empathy" towards refugees and asylum seekers.

In commemoration of World Refugee Day, the art display features a number of backpacks and luggage tags with testimonies of people who have journeyed to the UK.
 

In London, more than 26,000 asylum seekers receive support from local authorities, according to the latest government figures, external.

Commissioned by the charity Migrant Help, the artwork can be seen at London South Bank Riverside West until Thursday.
 

Behind the artwork, called Bags of Hope is [Artist] Sophie Cunningham.
 

She hopes passersby will see "the personal narratives behind the statistics" and obtain a greater understanding of the plight of refugees.

The backpacks, which are stitched together at the seams, will eventually be unstitched and used.

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Ms Cunningham says she was drawn to using backpacks after listening to stories from her partner who fled Afghanistan as a child." 
 

Jacob Evans, BBC News (Published 20 June 2023)