Baggage Claims

This exhibition presents the work of an international group of 17 artists who explore the impact of today’s vast scale of global commerce and travel on contemporary life. Using suitcases, trunks and crates to create works of art, these artists express provocative ideas about the mobility of global culture. These ideas often refer to the humanitarian, economic and political concerns of populations who are compelled to flee conflicts and hardship or to seek opportunities far from home. On an intimate level, baggage transports and holds personal belongings, and by implication is a rich metaphor for individual and family histories. The term baggage also carries significant psychological meaning, referring to the burdens or blessings of those things in life that cannot be left behind. Baggage Claims is the first exhibition to present a new body of work by contemporary artists who are examining these timely themes.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website