"But where are you really from?"
“But where are you really from?” Former Lady-in-waiting Susan Hussey’s pestering of Ngozi Fulani in 2022 is probably the most notorious example of this tired and extremely tiring question. The question indicates that the questioner does not accept what he/she has been told; that the person asked is concealing the truth. Why does one conceal the truth? Because of shame. Ergo: if you don’t tell me where you’re really from, it’s because you’re ashamed to admit it to me.
A child, however, is raised not only by its family but by all with whom it comes into contact. This is reflected in my “But where are you really from?” prints. Where is anyone really from? We are all from all sorts of relationships, places, times, events…….
One can recall an event, an individual or an emotion many times but each time the experience feels new. I therefore give what I remember the appearance of news or a magazine feature in flat, montage images of places, times, people, feelings and odd objects with which I associate them. This current series represents my memoir up the age of twenty, when I was an undergraduate recently returned home after three months at Leningrad State University in 1978.
Each individual print is being made into a Turkish map-fold, to represent life's itinerary and stops along the way. Eventually all the 'maps' will be bound into a single large volume.