Curated by Diana Ali at Art Center Caravel, ARTE.M Association, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal 2024 & Arthall, Victoria, Gozo, Malta 2025

Concept:

We are facing many barriers globally where our identities are being bruised, rejected, and turned away. This leaves a tension for bodies, thoughts, and circumstances to be accepted and co-exist. Artists have been invited to contest and question what it means to face barriers. Often our artworks have been declined from being shown and exhibited. This exhibition gives an opportunity for the art to migrate. There may not be a utopia, but there are ways of overcoming barriers. Imagine the artwork being personified. What would it say if it had freedom of movement, no immigration law, finding asylum and a sense of belonging without being displaced? A fantastic array of international artists come together in one space to question, confront and seek sanctuary through their artwork.

Exhibition information/Flyer:

Exhibition information/Flyer:

UPDATE 2025

In 2024, a majority of the work was detained by the Portuguese customs on the way to be exhibited in Madeira. The artwork did not have a freedom to roam. In 2025, the art hopes to confront crossings and overcome barriers by having the opportunity to be exhibited at Arthall, Malta.

Doreen Maloney #1 (US)


'Promised Land/ Visible Walla'


(Cyanotype, 5x7 print)



The allure of a promised land resonates deeply within the human story, drawing travelers in search of adventure, the ill in search of healing, and immigrants in search of refuge, opportunity, and a better life. Landscape photography often participates in this myth, idealizing its subject by using aesthetics to emphasize harmony and sublimity while overlooking ecological or social realities.
I am drawn to cyanotype because it makes the ordinary seem otherworldly and timeless. It invokes serenity and nostalgia, transform- transforming a simple image of a park into a tranquil, dreamlike paradise. In this way, cyanotype echoes the promise of an elsewhere and of an image of belonging that hovers between truth and illusion.
But at the border, the illusion shatters. For many who risk everything in search of safety and opportunity, the “promised land” becomes a false narrative, collapsing into barbed wire, detention centers, and mass deportations. Instead of harmony, they face separation, fear, and systemic erasure. The horror of this reality stands in stark contrast to the dreamlike images we construct, yet both reveal the same human longing for connection, belonging, and the pursuit of happiness.