Opinion
Henk Wildschut’s Refugees Are With Us Here, Now
THE DAILY PIC: At MoMA, Henk Wildschut shows a home held together with toy-store tape.
Blake Gopnik
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THE DAILY PIC (#1695): In the powerful little show called “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter,” now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this photo by Henk Wildschut seemed to me the lynchpin work. At first look, it’s just another sad image of yet another displaced person’s tent, such as we see and bemoan in the news. Then you look closer, and realize that the tape holding this “home” together has the Lego symbol all over it. This scene wasn’t recorded in the distant East or South. Its paper shack must be down the way from a mall or a big-box Lego store.
Dunkirk, France, May 2010, reads Wildschut’s title. Refugees are with us, here, in the West, and are unlikely ever to go away. They are our problem, and our shame. We owe them … refuge. (©Henk Wildschut)
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