2025
Collage, mixed media
70 × 110 cm
Private collection
Concept
This place has witnessed tears and laughter, births and deaths. People have walked this ground whose names are no longer remembered, yet whose traces remain — in the stones, in the trees, in the silence. Each of them left something of themselves behind, and the earth, patient and wise, has woven their stories into one continuing tale.
My own journey began far from here. Yet step by step, through encounters, discoveries and chance, I arrived at this old farm in Sweden — a place where others lived before me and where others will live after me. Today, I am here. Tomorrow, someone else will stand here, looking towards the same horizon.
Sometimes I wonder whether we truly choose the places in which we live, or whether, in some way, they choose us. Perhaps a place calls quietly until we finally hear its voice. The way we arrange our home, plant a tree or place a table by the window may unknowingly echo gestures made by those who lived here before us.
Our stories are like threads woven into a larger fabric. We change the colours and sometimes the direction, but rarely break the thread completely. We do not begin from nothing — we enter a story that is already unfolding.
I feel that this place chose me.
About the Work
Bound by Place grew from this reflection on memory, belonging and the passage of time. While living on an old farm in Sweden, I began discovering traces of the people who had lived there before me — photographs, documents, books, textiles, dried plants and everyday objects found in barns and other buildings. Rather than treating them simply as abandoned things, I began to see them as fragments of the lives that had once occupied this place.
The work was created directly on an old door from the farm. I combined drawing and painting with collage, photography, textiles, documents and found objects. The materials therefore do not merely represent the history of the place — many of them physically belong to it.
At the centre of the composition is a raven, a guardian of the place’s memories and secrets. My own presence appears through the observing eye, marking me as another temporary witness within its continuing history.
A string runs through the composition like a line of life, connecting different people, objects and moments in time. It leads towards a nail and a key — symbols of departure and transition — but does not end there. The line continues, because the history of the place will continue after us.
Creating this work taught me that meaning does not have to emerge only through making new forms. It can also be found through discovering, selecting and connecting what already exists. I realised how important it is to me to build a work in layers, allowing material, object, image and symbol to come together as parts of one narrative.
