DISLOCATED
DREAMS

Leaving home. Losing your bearings. Finding home within.

This series grew out of my experience of emigration. It follows three stages: the breakdown of the familiar, a personal hell, and the gradual discovery of peace within myself.

Instead of descriptive labels, I chose a literary quotation for each stage — the words that best captured its emotional state.

WHEN THE FAMILIAR BREAKS

The first stage is the breakdown of everything familiar. Torn paper, tickets and fragments of architecture carry pieces of a life that no longer fits together.

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Torn paper and map fragments form a broken classical face

A red classical head, a child and fragments of architecture

A classical face interrupted by paper fragments and a red curtain

A PERSONAL HELL

Then comes a personal hell: fear, loneliness and the feeling of being lost. In these two collages, horns turn the familiar figures into something unsettling. The struggle has moved inside.

“Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.”
Dante Alighieri, Inferno

A horned figure in a dark room with a chessboard floor

A horned figure and a child in an enclosed tiled space

FINDING HOME WITHIN

The final three collages move towards peace and acceptance. Home stops being only a place to return to. It becomes something I can find within myself.

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through… but when you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.”
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

A sculptural head, pink staircase and child beneath an open sky

A child at a doorway inside a sky-filled silhouette

A sculptural face framing a bird, a child and city architecture

In the room.

NICOSIA, 2025

Dislocated Dreams was presented in my solo exhibition at Rüstem Kitabevi & 22 in Nicosia, opening on 27 September 2025.

Dislocated Dreams — exhibition video

A little further from home.

DUBAI, 2026

In 2026, Dislocated Dreams travelled to Dubai. A series born from leaving home found itself in another city, on another wall, meeting people whose stories I might never know.

There is something tender about that distance. These images began with a very personal feeling of being out of place. In an exhibition, they leave that private space and make room for someone else to recognise a part of their own life.

The photographs and quiet moments below show the works in the exhibition space.

Dislocated Dreams collages displayed on a gallery wall in Dubai

Corner view of the exhibition installation in Dubai

From the exhibition floor · Dubai, 2026