| | by admin | | posted on 15th April 2026 | Artworks | | views 2242 | |
Suspended was a 2017 art installation at a London church created to highlight the continuing refugee crisis and the human stories often hidden within it.
A baby's bright red bib hangs in mid-air. Across the front are the words: “My 1st Christmas Ever!”. Nearby, a pair of jeans hangs upside down as though their owner is falling from a height. There are shoes, socks, mittens, hats and pyjama tops, some with their sleeve-ends intertwined like hands reaching for one another.
These garments formed part of Suspended, an installation by the British war artist Arabella Dorman in the nave of St James's Church, Piccadilly in London. Around 700 items of clothing were hung high above the church floor, creating a drifting canopy of garments that seemed to float in mid-air.
The clothes had been salvaged from beaches and olive groves on the Greek island of Lesbos, where thousands of refugees arrived after crossing the Aegean Sea in fragile boats. Many of the garments had been discarded by those arriving on shore, wet, damaged, or simply abandoned in the rush to continue the journey.
For Dorman, the sight of these abandoned belongings was deeply affecting.
“There were thousands of items of clothing discarded by refugees. I was struck by the concept of the empty garment, evoking the hidden presence of the person who had worn that item. These clothes reveal what is now being forgotten.”
The power of the installation lay in this idea of the “empty garment”. Each piece of clothing hinted at the life of the person who once wore it, a child, a parent, a traveller, yet the person themselves was absent. The garments became quiet witnesses to journeys marked by danger, loss and uncertainty.
The title Suspended carried a second meaning. The clothes were literally suspended above the church, but the word also reflected the uncertain condition of many refugees whose lives have been placed on hold. Many live in a kind of limbo, unable to return home yet unsure where they will eventually find safety.
In that sense, the installation did more than display abandoned objects. It transformed them into a visual reminder of lives interrupted by conflict, fear and displacement.
The setting of the installation added another layer of meaning. Displayed during the Christmas season, the work invited visitors to reflect on themes of displacement and refuge that sit at the heart of the Christian story. In the Gospel of Matthew, the infant Jesus himself becomes a refugee when his family flee violence and escape to Egypt.
For the church community hosting the installation, the work was therefore not simply an artwork but a moment of reflection. Visitors entering the nave found themselves standing beneath hundreds of garments silently representing the lives of people forced to leave their homes.
The exhibition also had a practical purpose. Suspended raised funds for the Starfish Foundation, a charity working directly with refugees on Lesbos and providing support to those arriving on the island.
By transforming discarded clothing into a haunting visual installation, Dorman's work brought distant events into a space of contemplation in the heart of London. In doing so it asked visitors to look again at a crisis that can easily fade from public attention, and to remember that every discarded garment once belonged to a living person.
