Hello.
How are you?
I worry that you haven’t had time to fully know or process the answer to that question, perhaps because I feel like I don’t either these days. January felt like it lasted a year, and now all of a sudden it’s March, 2025, and I just saw a video on social media of a test-run of an electric flying car. Watching it, all I could think was: how I wish that this video was the most spectacular and talked-about event today.
It reminded me of a conversation I had with my father once, we were talking about the future, and the past. He told me about at text he was asked to write when he was in college in the seventies, his teacher had asked the students to imagine what the year 2000 would look like. One of the things he imagined would be normal in 2000, was flying cars. The impact of internet and the subsequent increase and flow of information (and disinformation) however, was something neither he nor most people could imagine, making it perhaps futile to even ask the next question. But still I want to ask you, and myself: what might 2050 look like?
In 25 years, all being well, I’ll be 71, about the same age my parents are now, and I would like to be able to tell the children in my life then, about how we in spite of everything, rose to the occasion, and turned things around. And that I still can’t explain how, because it was nothing short of a miracle, but it worked, what we did mattered, and it changed everything.
I don’t for a moment believe I have all the answers, or that I’m even capable of finding them, but I also don’t think I have to be the person who comes up with the solution. I just believe that I must do whatever I can to make sure someone does. And that means, for one thing, that we need to treat everyone as non-expendable.
Because I can’t save the world. But I think maybe we can.
For my exhibition, “Who do I talk to about saving the world?”, I made a printed edition of my work “This is what the ruling class has decided will be normal”. I wrote about the process of working with it here:
Red Line
Some years ago, when I was writing my bachelor about how photography could be used as a therapeutic method, I remember reflecting on the impact a photo can have on changing public perception. Images that will …
The series contains 18 watercolor paintings made after screenshots of photos and videos on social media, where so many of us have been witnessing crimes against humanity daily. The title is a quote from Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force.
On February 25, 2024, Aaron approached the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., intending to immolate himself as an act of protest against the genocide in Gaza. Immediately before the act, which was live-streamed on Twitch, he walked towards the embassy and said:
“I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force. And I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers—it's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
Outside the embassy, Bushnell placed his camera down, positioned himself in front of the gates, and poured a flammable liquid over himself. A security officer approached Bushnell, asking if he needed help, but was ignored.
After igniting himself, Bushnell repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine!" as he was burning, and eventually collapsed to the ground. The security officer radioed in for assistance. A Secret Service officer approached the scene, aimed a gun at Bushnell off-camera, and ordered him to "get on the ground" multiple times while a police officer yelled: "I don't need guns, I need fire extinguishers!"
Multiple officers responded to the scene and used fire extinguishers on Bushnell. He was transported to a local hospital by the DC Fire & EMS. At 8:06 p.m. local time, about seven hours after his self-immolation, Bushnell was declared dead from his burn injuries.
On the morning of his self-immolation, Bushnell had posted a message on Facebook: "Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now.”
This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal (2025)
Printed on: Scandia 2000, 200 g.
Size: 128 x 205 mm.
Numbered edition of 20.
Signed by the artist.
Price: NOK 750,-
All proceeds after print costs goes to Palestinakomiteen i Norge and Doctors without borders.
Aaron. February 25, 2024.
A little girl in a yellow Dumbo t-shirt with arms wide lies dead in the sand. May 31, 2024.
Gaza. June 2, 2024.
Her name was Layan.June 3, 2024.
Warning, graphic content. June 5, 2024.
7-month-old Fayez Abu Aita died due to severe malnutrition. June 4, 2024.
Israeli warplanes bombed a residential block in the Shatie Refugee camp. June 22, 2024.
29 Palestinians dead and many injured in an air strike that targeted al-Sardi school that was being used as a displacement shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp. June 6, 2024.
A little girl was killed. June 5, 2024.
They are bound and blindfolded at all times. June 6, 2024.
Palestinian youth Mujahid Blas was abducted in Jenin by Israeli forces, who abused him, tied him to the front of a military jeep and paraded him around. He was later handed over by the army to the Red Crescent. June 22, 2024.
This is Gaza. June 8, 2024.
Israel is added to the UN black list for harming children. June 8, 2024.
The decapitated child in Rafa was named Ahmed Al Najar. June 4, 2024.
Israel bombs UNRWA school in Gaza, kills 32 displaced Palestinians. June 6, 2024.
Aid aircraft are conducting airdrops over Mawasi Khan Younis. June 4, 2024.
A father carries his injured child after an Israeli airstrike hits the house belonging to the Abu Aisha family as the Israeli attacks continue in Deir Al Balah. June 23, 2024.
Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. June 9, 2024.
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You are a brave, empathetic, and creative witness to the horrors we, our world, has unleashed. I wish you success with your release, to fund the helpers. Thank you!