Somerville has previously marked Refugee Week with celebrations, lectures and film screenings. This year, something new is joining the mix, as a Somervillian artist Julia Hall (1992, Modern History), debuts a new piece celebrating refugee women at the Ashmolean.
Julia with the newly-installed artwork
The piece, titled, ‘No One Has an Umbrella Above Their Head’, shares the story of Nuha Abdo, a sociologist from Syria, who arrived in Oxford in 2016. Two months after she arrived, Nuha founded the Oxford-based Syrian Sisters community group, which supports women from Syria to create social connections and improve their language skills to help build their lives in the UK. Out of this grew the social enterprise Damascus Rose Kitchen, which operates at the Old Fire Station as well as offering events catering (including for Somerville events!) Working for Damascus Rose Kitchen has had a significant impact on the mental health of the women involved, as well as boosting their social and economic independence.
Julia Hall’s artwork, which has now been installed in the Ashmolean’s Ancient Middle East gallery, depicts a red dress belonging to Nuha, painted with oils. The dress stands out beautifully against the blue background of the gallery, appearing almost to glow. It is a striking testament to Nuha’s character and story. Embroidered (by hand) into the canvas is a short text, sharing some of Nuha’s words about her arrival into the UK. The piece is part of Hall’s larger body of work, REFUGE, a project about integration, common experience and shared humanity.
Julia, who works between Devon and London, began the REFUGE series in 2022, inspired by the frustration she felt towards the limited and negative narratives about refugees that proliferate in UK media. As someone who has lived in various countries, she was also curious about the experience of arriving in the UK as a refugee, and what this process of integration feels like.
Each work in REFUGE emerges from a conversation Julia has had with a woman who has sought refuge in the UK, spanning 85 years of world history from Dame Stephanie Shirley, who arrived on the Kindertransport from Nazi Germany in 1939, through to R.E. who came from Sudan in 2024. The works each depict a dress or item of clothing owned and selected by the interviewee, and rendered in oil paint and embroidery. The labour-intensive process of the hand embroidery which traces the women’s words reflects the drawn-out process of settling into a new community. The project, which Julia sees as a hopeful one, is an exploration of the women’s resilience, a celebration of their contributions to Britain, and an exploration of how we can ‘welcome better’.
Detail of ‘No One Has an Umbrella Above Their Head’
Somerville College strives to be a part of providing a better welcome to those in need of one, having become a College of Sanctuary in 2021. Since then, we have welcomed over 25 sanctuary scholars, who have contributed so much to our community, as well as to the wider university and city of Oxford. As Nuha says, “no one has an umbrella above their head. You never know what will happen, because we never knew.” When the unimaginable happens to people, and they have to leave their homes, we aim to provide a welcoming academic home for them.
We recommend visiting this powerful artwork at the Ashmolean, where it can be found near the entrance to the museum, just inside the Ancient Middle East gallery. We also strongly recommend eating at Damascus Rose Kitchen.