“… The sense of warmth and intimacy, which most family homes radiate, has been replaced by wide spaces which emanate a cold tones. However, a ship, as well as a family, is marked by a hierarchy in which each crew member does their part to keep the community afloat. The sparks of interpersonal relationships and contacts are also visible in the photographs in which the ship, despite its coldness, becomes a place of gathering and socialization for different individuals...”
— foreword by Leopold Rupnik
Delta Oscar Mike, 2019.
By questioning my own family heritage, I question the permeation of individual family identities and the tradition of seafaring. Going on a two-month vessel voyage, I try to redefine the family seafaring tradition while, at the same time, looking for a place of my own in that male-dominated space.
When decoded from the NATO phonetic alphabet, which is used on a ship to communicate more effectively, the seemingly unrelated words “Delta Oscar Mike” spell out DOM (Croatian for “home”) and at the same time describe both the ship and the home. The complexity of the relationship between apparent antipodes of ship and home is contrasted by motifs of a maritime landscape and the interior of a cargo ship.
In the form of an anti-logbook, I capture fragments of everyday life in photographs, and representation of the spaces changes from an intimate and poetic to a descriptive and mundane understanding of the space of the ship. I bear witness to the reflexive and intuitive gaze of the Other, and I feel the space of the ship simultaneously in polar opposites – far and near, mine and theirs, and yet all of it as my fragmented self.
