Catching a Coffee with RASA's Jocelyn Chau
By Ilaria Bevan
Back in November, which to me seems like an age ago now that we have entered a new decade, I met with Jocelyn Chau, a member of Refugee Action St Andrews (RASA) to discuss the society’s latest exhibition, entitled “Beyond Borders”. Jocelyn and I arranged to meet in the beautiful Golf Café overlooking the Old Course and West Sands Beach, which we thought was a perfectly picturesque location for a mid-morning coffee.
For those who are not familiar with RASA, the society aims to create a helpful and supportive platform for those who have been uprooted from their homes. RASA aids people from all over the UK and across Europe, initiating an inclusive environment for all. Recently, RASA was successful in passing an initiative with the university to provide scholarships for refugee students, which will come into action in the next academic year.
When I arrived at the café, flustered from my intense and unfortunate driving lesson (yes, I still cannot drive), Jocelyn was seated by the window, completing some work having just finished her breakfast. After a rather futile attempt to buy myself a coffee, having had my card tragically declined, the lady took pity and gave me a free coffee. With that small victory in my back pocket, I sat down and Jocelyn and I immediately jumped into our conversation. However, when Jocelyn mused that refugees live on a mere £37.75 per week, my obnoxious glory was cut short. Thinking of this small sum, I realised that if I had in fact paid for my coffee, I would have just spent approximately 10% of my weekly budget. Shocking to think of, as I am sure many students here would easily spend more than this on any boozy night out.
The exhibition, which comprised of an immensely eclectic range of works, sought to illustrate the presence of borders within different societies; their importance and their impacts on our world. Although the exhibition featured works by students, such as Hanabi Blackmoor as well as photographs by Erik Johan Solheim, Mariano Gringus Urruia and Simon Fox, Jocelyn and I primarily discussed the cartoons of the Portuguese illustrator Vasco Garglo. Upon looking at the body of work on display, we noticed that the flags of European countries and of the EU were placed in many of the works. Jocelyn noted, “the EU is everywhere” (I will spare you readers the Brexit banter that took place at this moment) and how these “small but powerful” images place responsibility, and certainly blame, on the world’s nations. She suggested that in targeting such countries, and juxtaposing them with harrowing images of the struggling refugees the words remind us “we are all human”. Although this may seem obvious, it is something that can and has been easily forgotten. This should be reason enough to want to help those in a less stable position, those trying to find their “safe haven”.
I asked Jocelyn, do you think that it is ‘wrong’ or perhaps disrespectful to depict the refugees in art and if she thought it should be something an artist should do? To this Jocelyn thought that although many of the scenes by Garglo were exaggerated, however she suggested that this is the point in them as there was still an element of political reality to them. Having spent several weeks in the summer of 2019 in Greece as a volunteer to help refugees, Jocelyn recalled a boat landing she witnessed one morning. Although the scene was not as violent as those depicted by Garglo, it was nevertheless a memorable and immersive experience to view the treatment of the refugees by Greek officials.
However, after such personal encounters with the refugees, it is impossible to view this crisis as a burden. Even being in Greece was eye opening for Jocelyn given its past in this crisis and consequently it being equally difficult to agree with the media’s often one-sided (and decidedly negative) approach to refugees. In framing the situation through a different medium - art in a relaxed viewing setting - as opposed to the media or the tabloids, RASA were able to “help them [the viewer] understand their [the refugees’] situation more”, according to Jocelyn. Isn’t that what politically charged art is for? Shouldn’t it educate the viewer about a certain circumstance and expose the nitty gritty behind such scenarios that the media might not?
After discussing Jocelyn’s intimate experience, I was reminded of my own very small interaction with the refugee crisis in art, during my visit to the Arsenale section of the Venice Biennale. Ralph Rugoff’s “May We Live in Interesting Times” was certainly spiced up by Swiss artist Christoph Büchel’s Barca Nostra (Italian for “our boat”). This relatively small vessel, in April 2015, attempted to carry between 700 and 1,100 people from Libya to Europe. After the boat capsized, only 28 survived. According to the Guardian, this addition was certainly “pushing the limits of art”, as many were outraged at such a raw spectacle and attribution to the migrant crisis.
Although RASA dispersed Garglo’s work with more colourful, optimistic images that definitely helped soften the explicit violence in Garglo’s cartoons, I am sure that such scenes might have shocked viewers as much as the Biennale boat. By removing any form of contextualisation or description to accompany the images, paralleling the Barca Nostra, RASA provided a forum for free interpretation. Jocelyn felt that this was necessary to inspire the viewer’s secondary perspective in an unbiased manner. Allowing the art to speak for itself undoubtedly inspired conversation and reflection rather than provoking outrage as the Barca Nostra did to the self-proclaimed art fanatic at the Biennale.
Ultimately the exhibition successfully raised a number of important questions; What should we think about this on-going matter? Is art an appropriate medium of expression for one’s political views? Who has the right to visually express such opinions? Does art have the capacity to convey complex emotions that are intrinsically connected to the victims of this crisis? And so many more. I believe that RASA not only opened a gateway into such complex and unanswerable questions, but they have allowed us to look beyond the borders of our more fortunate lifestyles and actively reengage with such an important story.
If you want to find out more about RASA and their upcoming events or get involved check out their facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/RefugeeActionStAndrews/