After 5 months being back in Europe I caught myself feeling divided with my body and mind between two places. Even though my physical body was in Europe, I realised my mind/head is still in Aotearoa New Zealand, and that I didn't fully ARRIVED yet. This particular sensation expressed in the collages "Hybrid Identities" I started doing during that time.

These paintings are a continuation of the project "Hybrid Identities" following first explorations in collage medium. They depicts a feeling of being out of sync with yourself — as if your body and mind are no longer moving through the same place. There’s a quiet disorientation in carrying your thoughts elsewhere, while the world around you expects presence. It’s the split between where you are and where your inner life insists on staying. A kind of static identity caught between coordinates, where nothing fully lands, and the sense of self feels suspended — displaced yet searching for coherence. 

The experience of living and working in multiple places around the world, relocating myself every few years generated a sense of displacement. I started wondering 'what is one's sense of Self?' and how much environment has an influence over the Identity. 

Hybrid Identities
2025—ongoing
acrylic on canvas
various sizes