refuge (SIREN) is an immersive web exhibition and digital dissemination project created as an extension of nichola feldman-kiss’ solo exhibition Scapegoat, presented at the McMaster Museum in the Winter of 2022.

This exploratory site is an output of the artist’s prosocial practice-based research that explores colonial paradigms and the globalized order’s effects on human life and the environment. Scapegoat and another recent exhibition project called Siren III take on new meanings as varied elements inspired by their visceral hybrid-media installations are designed into this compelling interactive landscape.

Reflecting on themes from migratory culture and forced displacement to geopolitics and climate crisis, refuge (SIREN) is an excursion through oceanic passages, diasporic imaginaries and existential transitions. Submerged into the unsettling depths of descent and ascension, accompanying texts, audio works and images are remixed together in this virtual space which acts as a portal through tenacious journeys into new possible cartographies, honouring life’s urgent will to survive and thrive.