We make the transition from dream to reality every morning. We know the difference, we know how to go from one state of being to another. The relation between dreaming and being awake is similar to the relation between being alone and being in a group. You can’t understand one without the other. The way we perceive ourselves as “something” – the way we have an intuitive understanding of being – is strange and almost unthinkable when isolated. Put in the perspective of togetherness, being oneself becomes easier to understand. The knowledge of being is intuitive; thus intuition is the key in my work. I try to uncover “transition-links” in social life comparable with the moment of awakening. By transition-links I mean situations in which a person goes from being separate into being part of a collective. There is always this futile longing – wanting to be understood by others in a way that corresponds with how you perceive yourself as an individual. Lately I’ve been working with stories about conservative characters who, driven by some difference in the way they perceive themselves and the way other people see them, are turning desperate and would do most anything to change their situation. In my stories they try to fix their psychological problems by taking seemingly practical, physical measures.

Lisa Jonasson