Arafa and the Dirars

Arafa and the Dirars (Arafa, Mayas, Ethar, Waieel and Akram) are a group of collaborative artists and a family based in Hull, UK. Born in West Sudan, they spent four years in a refugee camp in Egypt after arriving in the UK in 2015 through the UN Gateway Resettlement Programme. They work with drawing, painting and poetry; their work reflects their story and aims to draw attention on the plight of the millions of people fleeing war and persecution.

The four years we spent in the camp were very special and fruitful years to how we developed our common artistic practice. Arafa (mum) – herself creative – has encouraged us (the Dirars) from a very young age to draw and paint, which came very naturally to us and soon became part of our daily life. After the war broke out in Libya in 2011 and after we fled to the camp, drawing, painting and being creative changed completely.
It was not the simple way of daily living anymore; it was not the simple activity that a mum and her children do on a lazy afternoon or a way to discover your creative talent. For us, art became a way to navigate our new lives, or what was left of them at that particular time. It was a way to deal with loss and with the uncertain future that was looming on the horizon.
At that stage, art had become a completely different asset in our lives, it had suddenly gained a deeper weight and value. Maybe it was always like that, but we definitely realized it more when we were in the camp. It helped us express ourselves, it helped us deal with new challenging feelings and support our mental willingness at a time when we needed it the most. The fact that we were “stuck” together in a small tent for about four years has played an important role in how we work together today. Back then, we “had” to work together: we had limited resources, so on multiple occasions we would all work on a single piece and this is where it all started. We wouldn’t have developed working in this way if it were not for this experience. The time we spent there helped us develop this style of work, as a collective, that we continued even after we arrived in the UK.
Here, in our new home, art is our voice, the voice that speaks to everyone regardless of their language or age. It is the voice that can reach everyone, warning them about the war and the ugly things it does to us humans.