Portfolio
2024
1.
In the Softness of the Belly
2024 - Ongoing
2024 - Ongoing
Every year 73 million women worldwide have an abortion. In 2023 I was one of them. In the experience of facing my own abortion, the women around me started sharing their stories. These women were my mother, my grandmothers, my friends, acquaintances, and even strangers -women across several generation and several nationalities. I learned that I wasn’t alone in my experience or my feelings of shame but that they tied into a long lineage of women claiming the right to autonomy over their own bodies and lives. In this project, I delve into the interwoven care networks between women and their different perspectives on reproductive rights. This is facilitated through meetings and conversations among a group of women who all have a significant role in my life.
We all had our beginning.
A beginning where a fertilized egg attached itself in the womb.
The womb, at the center of the body of a woman.
A woman equally entitled to autonomy and freedom,
Freedom of choice.
Choice of what she does and doesn’t want to do with her body.
Her body, her reproductive rights.
In other words: basic human rights.
A beginning where a fertilized egg attached itself in the womb.
The womb, at the center of the body of a woman.
A woman equally entitled to autonomy and freedom,
Freedom of choice.
Choice of what she does and doesn’t want to do with her body.
Her body, her reproductive rights.
In other words: basic human rights.
When you are pregnant you don’t make up your mind that you want to have an abortion, you make up your mind that you don’t want to have a child”.
- Tracey Emin, “How it feels”, 1996, (min: 5:02 – min: 5:08)
- Tracey Emin, “How it feels”, 1996, (min: 5:02 – min: 5:08)
In the softness of the belly
Is a force of power
A fountain of joy and growth
Or a weapon of mass destruction
In the softness of the belly
Is a force more powerful than any gun
A force that can be abused
By those who fight with stolen weapons
In a war that was never theirs to fight in
In the softness of the belly
Is a force more powerful than any stolen weapon
The raw resilience
Of an intergenerational resistance
Demanding its autonomy
In the softness of the belly there is a war
It’s the war on women
- fought from within
Is a force of power
A fountain of joy and growth
Or a weapon of mass destruction
In the softness of the belly
Is a force more powerful than any gun
A force that can be abused
By those who fight with stolen weapons
In a war that was never theirs to fight in
In the softness of the belly
Is a force more powerful than any stolen weapon
The raw resilience
Of an intergenerational resistance
Demanding its autonomy
In the softness of the belly there is a war
It’s the war on women
- fought from within
“The sheets were stained with milk and blood. I thought: If someone took a picture of this bed, any decent person would think it was a reproduction of a young girl’s murder or an especially brutal kidnapping. I knew that a woman´s life can change into a crime scene at any point, I had yet to understand that I was already living inside this crime scene, that the crime scene wasn’t the bed but the body, that the crime had already happened.”
- Johanna Lykke Holm, Strega, 2020
3.
In the Rubbles of Langma Beach
2023
2023
The easiest way to get to Langma Beach is going on the back of a motorbike with a local driver. As you come closer the resorts thin out and the land opens into a green field with palm trees and rubbles of unfinished or half destroyed houses. On the green field along Langma beach, six horses are grazing, and in the ruin behind the palm trees one of the window holes is covered by a mosquito net. This is where Aikins lives with his 3 sons and the six horses, he takes care of.
When you stand on the hill tops of Kokrobite and look west towards the coastline the houses thin out where the land meets the ocean. This place is called Langma Beach. In the rubbles of Langma beach lives a former horse jockey called Joseph Aikins with his three sons, Nathanial, Nicolas and Amos.
There is a 5 km distance from Kokrobite to Langma Beach. You can either walk there or go on the back of a motorbike via the sandy roads. At some point there are no more beach resorts but only open land with tall palm trees and remains of either half build or half broken houses. Among the rubbles six horses come to grass every day. These are the horses Aikins takes care of. Not many people visit this part of the beach, a noman land where broken dreams and aspirations for future greatness meet under the Ghanian sun.
Aikins moved to Langma Beach with his three sons in October 2022. His pregnant wife still lives in Accra with their 2 daughters. Aikins moved into the ruin on the land that his boss the land fighter Nii owns. There is a roaming uncertainty of who actually owns the different land areas. When the house was half built a group of rivals came and partially destroyed it with a bulldozer. One of the back rooms remains slightly intact. Aikins covered the gabbing windows with mosquito nets. This is where Aikins, his three sons, his assistant sleeps. Sometimes his wife and daughters as well when they come to visit.
There is not much shade to be found under the hot sun, but at noon when the sun is at its highest the palm trees in front of Aikins house offer a great spot for daytime rest for both horses and people.
The second time I came to visit Aikins one of the stallions had broken loose from its robes and attacked the older stallion. It had bitten his neck until the mussel fully snapped, and then moved onto impregnating the youngest mare. Since Aikins boss refused to pay the vet to put the stallion down, and Aikins couldn’t find it in his heart to shot him, he slowly and painfully died over the course of the next 4 days. When he died Aikins’ boss called and asked him to cut of his tail so he could keep it as a trophy. Keeping the tail of one´s dead horses is costume in Ghana.
Throughout the day the horses walk around in the red soils or on the trash covered beaches. Sometimes Aikins takes them to the beach next to the resort area. This is where he earns his only form of income either by taking people on beach rides or letting them take photos on the horses. At night he takes all the horses into the ocean and where he scrubs them clean from the hardships of the day.
Apart from being a former jockey Aikins also does acrobatics and traditional Ghanaian dancing. He teaches his 3 sons everything he know from horse grooming, construction, cooking, cleaning to acrobatics and dancing. Here two of his sons demonstrating ground moves at the beach.
In the late hours of the day the large crabs come out of their caves. Aikins doesn’t really like to eat crabs, but his boss does. When dawn break, he goes hunting along the beach with a metal bucket and collect a nice meal for Nii.
One of the mares, Rose, was pregnant with the foal of the late stallion. On the 6th of April rose gave birth to a stallion. When I came to visit, I discussed different name option with Aikins and I agreed that Supernatural would be a suitable name. Later in the evening Aikins boss arrived to break fast, as Aikins and his boys cooked for the boss and his 20 men, Nii named the foal Ramadan Blaze.
4.
99% Pure Potent Energy, SLURP, SLURP!
2023
2023
Patriarchy is here to stay, if you can´t beat them join them!
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Take a sip and get one step closer to living the life you always dreamt of!
5.
Aftermaths*
2021
2021
Photo book from a long lost summer.
*Walking shoeless through heavy sand
the colours changing from a blueish grey to a light pink
the colours intensifying as the ocean swallows the sun
the colours fading from a vibrant red to a dark blue
“Red at night, a sailors delight”
the moon lighting the path
continuing
Hopefully finding a way back home
the colours changing from a blueish grey to a light pink
the colours intensifying as the ocean swallows the sun
the colours fading from a vibrant red to a dark blue
“Red at night, a sailors delight”
the moon lighting the path
continuing
Hopefully finding a way back home
*Laying on your bed in dead silence
thinking about my breathing
trying not to move
your sheets smelling different
counting to 300 in my head
hoping this will make me fall asleep
the night feeling endless
the sun eventually coming up
leaving into the busy street
looking at you standing in the door
knowing that I don’t want to see you ever again
letting out a sight of relief
*Crying for 6 hours
changing the sheets to remove your smell
flooding my sheetless bed
regretting it
the room feeling wrong
the bed feeling wrong
staying there all day anyway
eventually stopping the crying
applying dry sheets
going back to bed
changing the sheets to remove your smell
flooding my sheetless bed
regretting it
the room feeling wrong
the bed feeling wrong
staying there all day anyway
eventually stopping the crying
applying dry sheets
going back to bed
*Meeting up with an ex
choosing not to
end up going anyway
choosing not to
end up going anyway
*Being seen in a new way
thinking about you
thinking about you
*Returning home
recovering
feeling a weird sense of emptiness
deciding to go out
finding both my bike tires punctured
returning to my bed
spending the next 18 hours staring into the ceiling
recovering
feeling a weird sense of emptiness
deciding to go out
finding both my bike tires punctured
returning to my bed
spending the next 18 hours staring into the ceiling