Migrate Journey
Chisenhale Gallery
2024

Migrate Journey, is an artwork and programme of events celebrating untold histories of migration to Tower Hamlets. The project is a collaboration between Shahed Saleem, photographer Rehan Jamil and Nurull Islam of Mile End Community Project.

Since 2019, the creative team has attempted to capture the manifold and complex migration stories of first—and second-generation immigrants from across Tower Hamlets through one-on-one interviews and a series of workshops in the community.

This growing and original archive of oral histories provides a unique insight into the profound difficulties of the journeys of interviewees, the resilience of the communities that embarked on them, and the triumphs and challenges of assimilation.

Drawing from this extensive research, Migrate Journey gives physical form to the captivating stories of migration the artists have collected, existing as a steelwork structure displaying portraits of participants and extracts of their testimony. Resting on reclaimed railway carriage wheels, the scaffold-like installation evokes movement, labour and the making of new worlds.

From the 2021 census the top eight migrant groups in Tower Hamlets were identified and participants from each group were interviewed about their experiences of migration and extracts from these interviews are displayed on the split flap, below their portraits.  

The project launched at the end of April with a weekend of zine making, spoken word, talks on the history of politics and migration to East London, and an open conversation on art, representation and identity.

This project is funded by Untold Stories, part of the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, and supported by Chisenhale Gallery and the University of Westminster.

Photos by Isabelle Infantes