Modou Dieng Yacine presents “Shelters for Migrants,” a presentation  that considers the migrant experience of leaving a familiar space  for an unknown one. While no migration story is the same, the shared  experience is the decision to leave home for some place new. The  reward for the magnanimous act of faith is undermined by challenges  to integrate into society, impediments to making a new home, and  encounters with unwelcoming beliefs. Yacine, who lives and works  in Chicago, questions how the city can have buildings but no shelter.  The works is guided by his own experience with migration and  his empathy for the experience of being homesick and sick of home.  

The rich colors and towering heights of abundant materials in  Shelters for Migrants evoke safety. Yacine’s chosen materials— cardboard, denim, burlap, wooden frame, and photographs— are synonymous with survival. He combines them with a vernacular  architecture of shelter borrowed from the streets of urban Africa.  Informed by current events involving migrants locally and abroad,  Yacine created new and incorporated existing works in this  arrangement, which includes paintings bound together with rips in  the canvas and cutouts that serve as windows. Depending on one’s  perspective, the space could be viewed as confinement, a home,  or a shack. Yacine’s response is one of urgency, and the work aims  to leave the impression that a spirit of abundance and kindness is  needed when creating a home.