Manchester: A Visit to the Manchester Art Gallery

#manchestertrips One of the most unforgettable pieces at the Manchester Art Gallery is Rossetti’s “Astarte Syriaca”—the striking face of an Eastern goddess that immediately captures the soul with just one glance. However, what left an even deeper impression was the seemingly simple piece in the modern exhibition: “Sea Fruit” by British artist Jamie Holman. This piece, made of lead-cast bird clams, is much more than an art installation. It refers to a tragedy that shocked the world two decades ago—the Morecambe Bay Cockle Picking Disaster, in which 23 illegal Chinese migrant workers lost their lives while gathering cockles in the bay. One of them, Dong Zin Wu, remains missing to this day. Holman, who witnessed the disaster, went to the site on the night it occurred and collected the bird clams that would become the molds for his work. He poured molten lead into 23 molds, each representing one of the workers who perished. In a narrow context, the issue of illegal immigrants from China may seem like a distant problem. But sadly, despite the passage of time, labor safety conditions for migrant workers have not significantly improved. The Morecambe Bay tragedy was not the last labor disaster to befall migrant workers arriving in the UK over the past 20 years. It serves as a stark reminder that these struggles are far from over.