Documenting Britain
I will examine where the history and institutional definition of ownership, geographies and belonging of these islands cross with a generous interpretation of my own lineage. It will meander from the perception of Viking pillaging, to the definition of Scottish/Nordic words like huss and heim as low class slang to the business of making borders in lands where there were none, stories of colonizations and protectorates, ancient treasures and individual human destinies. The work consist of text and images and will be process oriented, fragmented and experimental.
November
Jacob and Eleni, 1895
It is raining a little. The sky is patchy with light and grey clouds. On one side of the bus the mediterranean waves roar green and fierce-full toward the shore. On the other the naked billboards of a recession that haunts Greece and fuels the rise of an ugly nationalism make ready stretched canvas for nocturnal artists fighting against it. As I watch their messages blare across the hillside I travel east from my father’s house, closer to Syria, Palestine and Iraq where random British mapmaking in the 19th century is doing its work still today.