How Graphic Refuge Explores the Ethics of Artist-Refugee Relationships

The Authority File

In the second episode of this four-part series, Candida Rifkind and Dominic Davies dive into their writing process and the ethics of artist-refugee relationships examined in their coauthored book, Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics. Rather than collaborating throughout, Candida and Dom chose to write individual chapters and coauthor the introduction and epilogue. As they explain, this technique led to a natural dialogue between their sections in the book and a productive partnership amidst Covid lockdowns and life events.

Next, our guests summarize the artists featured in the title, which includes those with lived experiences as refugees, second generation refugees, and artists/writers commissioned by humanitarian organizations to communicate refugees’ stories. Candida and Dom then expand on the ethics between the artist and the refugee, exploring the empowerment of “refugee refusal” and spotlighting several examples of these ethical dynamics at play in Sarah Glidden’s Rolling Blackouts and Olivier Kugler’s Escaping Wars and Waves.

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