HOND

A visual exploration and personal reflection on the essence of identity and abuse in our humanity.

I was told that my mother threw me away like a dog - I've never stopped believing that.

My sister was three when my mom left. My father joined the South African Army, and I was legally written off. Adopted. Bereft of love. Somewhere you get lost.

You find yourself in situations of instability driven by post-apartheid society, religion, and child welfare. Trying to grow up as a solid human amid the neglect. Afflicted by ancestry and heredity.

HOND (Afrikaans for dog) explores my personal journey with generational trauma. Questioning the perspective that we are a possible version of ourselves due to the human consequences of our environment.

My work deals with self-identity and the disruptiveness in our humanity.

There is beauty regardless of the devastation. Endings and beginnings, balance and imbalance. The 'inbetweenness' that forms a collective memory.

Abuse isn't poetic, and neither was being raised as an Afrikaans girl.