Migrants An Exhibition of Work By Artist Issa Watababe, Presented By The Peruvian Embassy

Her book Migrantes, published in Spain and another 18 countries, has received important awards, such as the Libreter Prize (Barcelona, 2020) and the BIBF Ananas Grand Prize (Beijing, 2021).  The artist's career is mainly self-taught: She began studying Literature at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, then lived in Mallorca, Spain, where she took some art courses, and later returned to the Peruvian capital to dedicate herself fully to her creative work.

Issa Watanabe's work is characterized by a poetic essence that wraps around and unveils the narrative passages. In her most recent works, darkness serves as a backdrop, contrasting with the radiant delicacy of the characters. These characters are filled with endearing references and subtle ironies that enrich the overall piece. Watanabe's chosen technique allows her to achieve this effect. She creates and revises sketches, colours the drawings in pencil, scans them, silhouettes them, and assembles them on a digital black canvas. This canvas is then turned into successive landscapes using other chromatic elements. Isse was inspired to create this exhibition, after looking at a series by the photographer Magnus Wenman, in which he portrayed Syrian children sleeping in makeshift camps in the middle of the forest. She tells us

The children's gaze was not only one of deep sadness but reflected, above all, the terror they were feeling. They have lost their home, they have lived through the atrocities of war and extreme poverty, they have experienced the suffering that comes with losing their parents or siblings in such a violent way, and there is no consolation. In her illustrations, wild animals, birds, and noble domestic animals, often serving as identity emblems, become allegories of our diverse and afflicted species. They represent the search for a conducive environment for development and the effort to unite in solidarity. In Migrants, she uses this technique to create poignant and striking images that cannot fail to produce strong emotions from visitors to the exhibition.

Migrants going on display in Limerick Museum is the latest example of the important historical links between Limerick and Peru. During the Guano Age (1845-65), there were important commercial connections between Peru and Limerick when guano, a natural fertiliser, was imported in vast quantities and sold by Limerick merchants to the local farming community. Also, both before and after Peru gained its independence, a considerable number of Limerick priests and nuns worked in Peru. They included Fr Derek Leonard and Fr David Costello, who spent some years ministering in the El Resucitado Parish of Lima. This parish has a population of 120,000 or more than the entire population of Limerick city.