REWIND immigrant stories (Dignity of Labour Phase 2) explores migration return to places of origin, departure, and emigration. It rewinds the chronology of history and the global economies of immigrant labour. In 1947, Australia recruited thousands of workers to work at the BHP Steelworks in Port Kembla (located on the scenic Illawarra eastern coastline of Australia, 80 kilometres south of Sydney. By 1959, the Port Kembla Steelworks expanded; the workforce had grown to 22,884, with more than 60% transnational labour immigrants. There are three aspects to the installation
Return-Counter Cartography (large-scale maps, printed paper; drawing digital world; hand-sketching / travel paths; on walls and ceiling, noted M on layout) – the temporal leaps to a pre-migration origin – the scene of the realities/fantasy of departure/emigration – and to the repetitive/repairing nature of memory work.
Routes (5 constructed vertical perspex elements; attached to walls, noted R on layout) – individual migration inventories regenerate the cartography of the world – an antithesis to the metanarrative of ‘mass migration’, statistics, economic growth, or front-page news. Crafting the actual travel of ships, ports and airports into abstracted pieces of individual pasts.
Roots (audio recording + booklets; headphones and bench, noted A and B on layout) – language, words, sounds, emotions, textures, lands, scents, rhythms, photographs, laughter – listening – the fickleness of memory, the endurance of time. Tying/untying intimacy.