Salisbury Cathedral displays art of refugees' belongings lost at sea

Textile paintings depict refugees' washed up personal belongings

Art depicting personal possessions belonging to refugees recovered after migrant ships sunk in the Mediterranean will be put on display.

The paintings feature objects such as photographs and a passport retrieved from the seabed.

They form part of an exhibition by artist Shezad Dawood called Leviathan at Salisbury Cathedral.

The artist said they are tribute to "lives lost and those that were saved, prompting visitors to consider how we can find new reserves of empathy and think about ourselves as one humanity".

This sculpture is placed within the 1215 Magna Carta exhibition space

The exhibition features a mix of paintings, textiles, video and sculptures, including a piece titled Where do we go now?

Encouraging visitors to consider the legacy of Magna Carta and the rights and freedoms of refugees, one sculpture, depicts sailors on a small boat encountering a whale, which represents the state.

Threatening to destroy the vessel, the whale prompts the sailors to throw a barrel overboard to distract it, representing their labour.

A small sculpture that references Herman Melville's Moby Dick

The exhibition also features short films by Mr Dawood, which are set in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and explore ways in which all beings and the earth are connected.

The exhibition invites people to explores the interaction between migration, mental health, and climate change through the films, paintings, textiles, video and sculpture.

Mr Dawood said: "We need to have empathy not just for other people living in our world but also for the vast array of animal and plant life who are victims of the way we treat our world."

The exhibition will run until 3 February.

The work 'AnthropoPangaea' hangs in the cathedral's North Transept

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