Source 120 - Winter 2025 - Hostile

If people are discontented and anxious then one solution that can be offered to them is to blame someone else for their problems. Asylum seekers – people at the bottom of the ladder of misfortune – are a readily available group for this blame, often under the catch-all term of ‘immigrants’. And so it is that immigrants become an object of hostility both in media representations and government policy. In this issue we examine if the popular image of immigrants matches reality and if those that are labelled as hostile to them always are.

In 2024 temporary metal barriers were installed along Dublin’s Grand Canal to stop International Protection Applicants from sleeping there after tent encampments grew due to a lack of accommodation. Tents provided by one official agency were later removed and destroyed by other official agencies. ‘Housing’ them in this way left them vulnerable to freezing temperatures, harassment and attacks from far-right groups, which happened regularly both on the camps and squats such as the one pictured on Ormond Quay. Camps appeared in other locations including church grounds but were permitted by the local priest, for one night only. Conor Horgan’s work EDGE is a response to the hostile architecture and tented encampments. Colin Graham introduces the work noting the "forced absence of humanity which haunts the work".

Jaywick in Essex, is the focus of David J Shaw’s work. The village sits within the constituency of Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK (the UK’s leading far-right party). Jaywick is attached to a long list of negative headlines and documentaries such as Channel 5’s Benefits By The Sea. Shaw’s first trip to Jaywick was part of a plan to investigate areas voting for the Reform Party. While there he was approached by Paul, a youth worker and DJ, who enthusiastically explained that "there is a great community here" and invited him to a karaoke event, the main cultural activity of the town. It was an invite that opened up Shaw’s connections with Jaywick’s community and led him to produce a more nuanced representation of it beyond the hostile headlines.

An invitation from Lismore Castle Arts led artist Ruby Wallis to develop a collaborative project with International Protection Applicants living in Lismore. Using the Castle’s extensive walled gardens and building on her earlier practice of walking at night with the camera, they went into the garden after dark to find three plants they recognised from home. Wallis reflects on how it was a "shadowy and mysterious experience, linking to the strangeness of the castle looming over us, which is such a colonial space and symbol of the empire". Many of the images in Between Dog and Wolf come from that walk, with additional photographs taken during a daytime visit by other participants. The participants gave permission for the portraits made on these walks to be used in the work. During the workshops they spoke about plants they recognised from home, their healing, culinary, and sometimes ritual uses, and the memories they carry, which appear in the captions for the images. Camera-less prints were also made in the workshops, including anthotypes made with blackberry and beetroot juice, exposed to sunlight for seven days. As with memories these prints fade over time.