Home Sweet Home

The project is about the idea of home, placed in the wider context of issues of migration, exile and displacement. The theme was explored through several elements, against the background of the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the British Trade in Enslaved People.

The children were invited to reflect on what 'home' means. They were then asked to think about what they would take with them if they had to leave, as migrant workers do now and slaves did in the past. The artists also discussed notions of utopia, why people move and encouraged the children to empathise with those in this situation. This resulted in visionary maps and drawings of possible utopias; negotiated landscapes where their 'haven' had to find its place alongside everyone else's; treasured objects made in clay, burlap, calico and gingham - materials chosen to reference the slave trade; hand drawn bank notes celebrating things valued more highly than money, for use as utopian currency; and finally in small, anonymous cardboard suitcases, archetypal symbols of travel containing everything from practicalities to whole landscapes.