Displaced
In this series, I wanted to understand the relationship between the immigrant and foreign land. I became interested in the subject, naturally, when I moved to Germany and became and immigrant myself. The simple act of living in this country, I felt, was not enough to make me German. I began to think about the relationship between history and identity.
Most of the individuals represented in this series had either little to do with their new country’s history or have a difficult relationship with it. In Conquistador, a Mexican artist living in Berlin asked to be placed within a historical Spanish church. The alter of the church in Salamanca is made from pillaged Mexican gold.
The figures in this series are often visible minorities who feel out of place in their new home country. Along the way, their ties to their original home have also loosened. They become post-national and hybrid. I have come to feel that such people are the hope of the future.
