In May of 1945, my German Grandmother Inge began the start of a 800km journey to return home to Hamburg, from a small town in Czechoslovakia.
The journey took three months, mostly on foot, accompanied by her 18-month old daughter, and was undertaken when she was heavily pregnant with her second child.
In the summer of 2022, I followed her journey, using her detailed documentation of this time as a guide. Travelling mostly on foot, my own journey took 21 days.
I am currently in the process of working with the drawings, writing, and photographs made during this time.
I am currently in the process of working with the drawings, writing, and photographs made during this time.
SOUTH DOWNS WAY
2023Monoprints of drawings made along the South Downs Way, East Sussex.
German-English Illustrator and Artist based in Brighton, UK
My work explores how illustration can be used as an active tool for understanding, interpreting and re-evaluating dominant narratives and discourse about historical events. How can illustration add to our understanding of history, how can it challenge it?
I am interested in exploring and highlighting the ways in which history is recorded, suppressed, remembered and distorted. I have become particularly interested in how meaning and underlying power structures contained within archival records can be interpreted through the act of drawing. Often working with archival artefacts and personal testimony, I create narrative sequences and visual essays that explore my own relationship to history.
I am interested in exploring and highlighting the ways in which history is recorded, suppressed, remembered and distorted. I have become particularly interested in how meaning and underlying power structures contained within archival records can be interpreted through the act of drawing. Often working with archival artefacts and personal testimony, I create narrative sequences and visual essays that explore my own relationship to history.