PRAYING MAT(E)


2012

Plastic mat, plastic fir-trees, rubber and glue

Who is genuine? What is genuine? Am I a real Swedish? Am I a true Muslim? Am I real? I do not know what authenticity is”. Saadia is discussing her in between position, all at once or nothing straight through. “Her concerns are in finding what is real? Saadia have tried to get straight answers. But there seems to be none. But truths change and are influenced by time. I can only make create from the person I am, with the identity that I’m wearing. I came here as a refugee child. That means I lack inherited things. My material environment is from Ikea, here and now. It also appears in what I do.”

I want the mat pattern to convey a meeting between a prayer-mat, the Swedish nature and a yoga and a nail mat. For me, the pattern is about finding home. I want to create a new landscape which allows me to feel at home.

Installation view from the exhibition Hemslöjden på Liljevalchs (2012), Liljevalschs, Stockholm.