The Original is Unfaithful to the Translation

These cheap Chinese-made plastic-weave bags have become almost synonymous with refugees and poorer migrants the world over, much like the carpet- bags of centuries gone by. Today the movement of these people is as contentious as ever.

The bags are frequently named after the most common immigrant demographic in an area. They are colloquially dubbed things like: ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags in Nigeria, ‘Türken Koffer’ or ‘Polen Tasche’ in Germany, ‘Guyanese Samsonite’ in the Caribbean, ‘Bangladeshi Bag’ in the UK, and ‘Shangaan or Zimbabwe Bag’ in South Africa.

I have been working with these bags as a material in my art for some time. During a residency in Scotland I had Johnston’s of Elgin translate the pattern found on these bags into a high-end tartan fabric.

This series of 3 isometric cubes documents my process of working with this pattern. The isometric projection is a method for showing three-dimensional objects in technical and engineering drawings as well as in pixel art. These are building blocks or voxels for immigrants. They also bring to mind the isometric cubes of Sol LeWitt.