Dorset Illustrated Map featuring the Bibby Stockholm barge
I created the Dorset illustrated map to celebrate lots of glorious summers spent with my family in the seaside town of Swanage, which is my home from home. It features many of the beautiful landmarks in Dorset, such as Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door, Corfe Castle and Lyme Regis. I have been selling prints of the map in Gallery 65 in Westbourne, Bournemouth and The Mulberry Tree Gallery Swanage as well as in my own online shop and it is still one of my most popular prints.
I was approached by Dorset solicitor Nigel Turner after he saw the print in Gallery 65. Nigel asked me if I would be interested in creating an ammended version of the map, to mark the passing of one year since it was revealed that the Bibby Stockholm barge would be used to contain asylum-seekers in Britain off the coast of Portland. I am very happy to have been able to support Nigel's campaign with the new version of the map which features an illustrated Bibby Stockholm along with the words 'Dorset's Shame'.
High-quality A3 prints of the copyrighted artwork can be purchased for £30, including P&P, by
contacting nigelturner@westbournecreative.co.uk, with all proceeds going to the support of the Three Billboards
campaign. The press release can be viewed below.
Press Release
Portland, 3 April 2024 – To mark the passing of one year since it was revealed that the Bibby
Stockholm barge would be used to contain asylum-seekers in Britain, Berlin-based artist Katherine
Kannon and Dorset solicitor Nigel Turner have worked together to adapt Katherine’s poster of Dorset
landmarks. The artwork now includes the barge, shown just off Portland and labelled “Dorset’s
Shame”.
Art can be a powerful way to draw attention and invite questions. In a move reminiscent of the film
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the aim is to sell the posters to mark this anniversary and
raise funds for displaying the Dorset print on three billboards around Weymouth and Portland.
Nigel Turner said: “When I first saw Katherine’s original Dorset poster, I was struck by the fact that
Portland was front and centre of the image. It seemed right to adapt the poster to highlight the Bibby
Stockholm as an unwelcome local landmark. I dealt extensively with Dorset Council last year on this
case, and my impression is that they gave up the fight before it started, despite having voted against
the barge in July 2023.”
On 3 April 2023, it was revealed that the Home Office intended to deploy the Bibby Stockholm as a
way to contain asylum-seekers (people who are here legally because their asylum claims are already
being processed). Even the local Conservative MP, Richard Drax, said the use of the barge would be
“totally and utterly out of the question”. Since then, the vessel has been the focus of local and national
anger.
On 13 July 2023, at a full council meeting, Dorset Council passed the following motion (one councillor
described the agreement with the Home Office as ‘a devil’s deal’):
“That this council condemns the commercial agreement between the Home Office and Portland
Port for the mooring of the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate up to 500 asylum seekers at
this location. That the mooring of the barge in Portland Port is an entirely inappropriate location
and should be removed at the earliest opportunity…”
Portland residents objected to the Home Office’s lack of consultation ahead of the decision to place
the barge there. Nevertheless, it arrived in Portland on 18 July 2023 after months of extensive repairs
in Falmouth, and was briefly operational for five days in August 2023 until the small on-board cohort
was evacuated due to the discovery of Legionella in the barge’s water system.
The Bibby Stockholm has been labelled performatively cruel and a method of quasi-detention –
indeed, there have been suicide attempts on board and one Albanian man, Leonard Farruku, died
apparently by suicide in December 2023. That same month, 65 charities wrote an open letter
demanding the closure of the Bibby Stockholm barge.
In August 2023, the Fire Brigades Union launched a legal challenge over fire safety concerns on
board the Bibby Stockholm. And in October 2023 and February 2024, Portland mayor Carralyn
Parkes asked the High Court for a judicial review of the decisions, by the Home Office and Dorset
Council respectively, not to seek or enforce planning permission at the site (decision pending).
The site has drawn protest visits from far-right and neo-Nazi groups. Locally, anti-immigrants have
said of the barge:
- residents should be fed into an incinerator
- it should be bombed
- it should be set on fire (with everyone in it)
- it should be cut adrift
- there should be a ‘weekly death count’ of its residents.
According to the fire risk assessment drawn up by CTM (the barge operator), the barge is now on
24/7 arson watch.
Despite the Home Office’s claim that the barge was being used to save money on hotels, the National
Audit Office has stated that it is considerably more expensive than hotels – the barge will have cost
£34.8 million over its 18-month initial operation.
High-quality A3 prints of the copyrighted artwork can be purchased for £30, including P&P, by
contacting nigelturner@westbournecreative.co.uk All proceeds will go to support the Three Billboards
campaign.
For more information, contact
nigelturner@westbournecreative.co.uk – Dorset solicitor
nicola@onelifetolive.org.uk – campaigner against the Bibby Stockholm barge