The Ruins
Naushin Raheema
Artwork part of ‘Struggle’ Issue 12
Trigger warning: Refugee experience, natural disasters.
The Science
Many tales go untold because their telling would bring nothing but suffering and grief. These are not fictions, but the real-life hardships experienced by people who were uprooted from their homelands: climate refugees. I made this piece through art journaling the paradise fires, Pakistani floods, and how climate refugees are suffering. I wanted the observers to assume that the whole world is drowned by the ocean, but adding a few euphoric jellyfish here and there. I wanted to make sure it was clear that all of this ruin was because of humanity.
In my opinion, the world has been struggling since we learnt how to make fire. But this art piece is about how humans made their own kind suffer. Climate refugees are one of the true life stories that are left untold. An average of 20 million people leave their homes due to droughts, a rise in sea-level, and extreme flooding. This is a very real struggle for survival.
Further reading:
The Artist
Naushin Raheema lives in the city of Madurai, in India. She is an impassioned science writer, covering various aspects of science. In addition to this, Naushin loves writing apocalypse and elegy poetry, as well as art journaling during her free time. Naushin aspires to do a doctorate in marine science.
Copyright statement. This work is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license