« I
was born and raised in Germany’s Ruhrgebiet, once the
country’s prime area for industry. I come from a family of
storytellers.
My
mother, who loves books and forests and ships, comes from a family of
sailors. My father, who partly grew up in Colombia, was son to a
painter and a gallerist. My great-grandfather, whom I never met, sang
at the Berlin Opera. In his spare time he made pictures of mountains.
When
I was little I wanted to be a painter, a singer or an astronaut. We
had no money for the stars, so after trying my luck in different
realms of storytelling, I relocated to Australia for love and to
study the Visual. Today I am involved in various forms of image
making, teaching and writing. As distance is part of my migrant
identity, themes of place and belonging underpin much of my work.
Having arrived in my 30’s, I have come to understand two things:
a)
you can always see Orion, and
b)
all you need to travel to the stars is the mind.
