Xem creates publication about growing up with multiple nationalities
This story was previously published in Metropolis M and was written by Tessa Bourguignon (art historian).
He does not consider himself a conventional illustrator, something that immediately becomes clear from the work Xem Vermeij (Illustration Design student) presents. On the wall hang collages: a mix of analogue and digital photographs divided into nine chapters. Vermeij explains how he works across different media — including theatre, directing, and poetry — always choosing a different form to tell stories. At the start of his studies, he mainly focused on writing, which later developed into poetry and spoken word. When he found himself creatively stuck during his studies, he returned to making collages, something he had done since childhood. His graduation project, I Hope You Find Me, can also be seen as a collage: fragments brought together to tell a larger story.
As the son of a Dutch mother and an absent Turkish father, he struggled with questions surrounding his identity. After a trip to Istanbul, he created a series of self-portraits that explored his search for his Turkish roots. From there came the desire to share this story, while also making it larger than his own personal experience. Through his network and open calls, he found a group of people with a wide variety of dual nationalities and photographed them.
Although it may seem as if Vermeij’s graduation work consists of the photographs on the wall, the project truly comes together in a publication with a green cover, displayed on a small table nearby. Alongside the photo series, the publication contains his research into what it means to grow up with multiple nationalities. It is supported by quotes from interviews he conducted with his subjects and poems he wrote based on those conversations. Through the publication, he hopes to show that as a child growing up with multiple nationalities, you are never alone. At the end of the book, a final photo series appears in which Vermeij himself is portrayed, photographed by his mother, who is also a photographer. “I have my mother’s eyes,” he says poignantly.
