The elaborate compositions take place atop various floating vessels, from lifeboats to surfboards to a large yacht, supported by voluminous porcelain waves populated by diverse sea-life and accentuated with gold-leaf flourishes. The porcelain figurines are accompanied by an animated digital video rendering, in one or three channels, of a sea perpetually shifting between states of calm and storm.

Indeed, porcelain does not seem the right technique to express the dramatic reality that for too many years has seen thousands drown in the centuries-old cradle of Western civilizations. In their words, “comfort is both fallible and fragile, like the porcelain that is associated with it. Kept safe for generations in high places, porcelain figurines are attentively guarded but their fragility encapsulates the threat of instantaneous loss. They shatter easily.”

The Mediterranean Sea is once again the epicenter of ideological contradiction. War has pushed refugees and migrants who, saving themselves, have floated and swum across it to confront Europe with a difficult choice. (In ancient myth Europa herself was also forced to cross this sea). Their choice has already led to politically charged and ideological confrontations, to the polarization of public opinion and to the rise of xenophobia and ethnic violence.

This tragic situation has become a political conflict as well as the subject of negotiation and ideological speculation. In this form it has been transmitted by media as a meme in what is now described as ‘post-truth’. The ethical situation that has unfolded out of this is paradoxical to say the least.

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