“In my work, I try to explore the fluid boundaries between difference and sameness, a theme to which I think the pandemic lends a unique perspective. This pandemic has exposed our shared fragility. But fragility is relative: We are all in the same situation and yet we are not. Our individual experiences depend on highly different political, economic, and social realities. We are suffering individually but we have a set of circumstances that transcend the binary of difference and sameness and bring into focus the scope of experiences “in-between”.  It is these experiences “in-between” that I try to capture in my art.  

The experience of growing up between different cultures, practices, and languages is a key source of inspiration for my work, which often looks into the challenges people face in terms of alienation, safety, difference, and belonging. Themes of secrecy, pride, fear, disappointment, grief and hurt – but also hope, humor, and love are explored. The defenses behind which adults have learned to hide are stripped away so the viewer can hopefully see themselves reflected in the works and the commonality beneath our apparent differences. 

My art falls somewhat outside the norm, but I guess that’s only fitting. I am the outsider. The one you see on the boat full of illegal immigrants. The one you see on the dance floor in Berlin. In the streets of Cairo, in Henningsvær, Lofoten. That’s me. I belong to all these places where you recognize me as the outsider.

I have lived in Germany, Jamaica, Canada, and Norway and will probably…hopefully live in more places before I die.  My memories of and connections to each of these places form a mosaic. A pattern that is not broken but rather the sum of its parts. 

What separates us also connects us.”