Comics as an eyewitness - since years this is an important focus in my work and talks about comics, visual story telling and human rights issues and current happenings. To visually bear witness to our times.
When in 2013 Gezi Park happened in Turkey I found solace in my helplessness in creating Gezi Park. To witness happenings I’m emotionally tied to but actively and physically am not part of.
This approach, to make international happenings visually explainable for readers worldwide, resulted in more short stories and finally in working with Front Line Defenders. In 2019 I visited Manipur in Northeast India to visually document the story and travel for Front Line Defenders. The Caravan Magazine picked up Not Money-pur But Manipur - A graphic account of resilience and defiance in the face of conflict .
In June 2020 I became the creative director of Cypher which I publish together with Adam Shapiro, Head of Communication at Front Line Defenders. Since it’s launch we publish monthly short comics between 8 and 12 pages long depicting lives and happenings of Human Rights Defenders all over the world.
“Rap and hip hop culture has taken the word and ascribed a new meaning: ‘an informal gathering of rappers, beatboxers and/or breakdancers in a circle, in order to jam musically together.’ This, too, we find relevant to this project, in that we are bringing together artists and HRDs in freestyle collaboration of activism and art with the aim of informing, elevating and inspiring.”
This spring Cypher has been added to the digital archives of the Library of Congress.