The pop-up exhibition Arrival City presents a portrait of Liverpool, and more specifically Toxteth, as a city of immigration. Liverpool’s historic status as an important port city makes it one of the most unique ‘arrival cities’ in the UK, with many layers of history still making up the identities of people who have lived here for generations. One of the questions Arrival City asks is: how does the past affect the people’s way of life in Liverpool?
Toxteth has a turbulent history, often situating it as a centre of media controversy and racist misrepresentation. There are many who remember well the days when the area’s residents bore the brunt of Thatcher’s militarisation of the police. The local councils continue to be disproportionately affected by the Conservative government’s austerity measures. Perhaps as a result, relatively low rent prices and proximity to the city centre make Toxteth an attractive place to live for new immigrants from all over the world who are finding their feet.
Liverpool, and especially Toxteth’s relationship with immigration is multi-layered, made up of different pasts and presents. The project aims to show complex, contradictory perspectives which challenge the idea of ‘immigrants’ as a group of people, showing it instead to be a vast umbrella term. Arrival, and the complex process of staying, can be looked at from all sides.
Back
