This series of seven printed works was developed for a group show in the city of Uster, in Zürich, Switzerland. The exhibition celebrated 30 years of the city’s residency programme, displaying current work from many of the programme’s participants. Now living far from Switzerland, I decided to contribute something to this occasion that might ‘speak’ about the place where I now live. To do this I focussed on a small, uninhabited island, located close to New Zealand’s current capital.Titled Island/Nation, this artwork mixes object making, historical imagery, drawing, and text to create an impression of Matiu/Somes island. It begins with an image of the island itself—a reworked photograph of a model made with mud. From this initial landscape picture, further images and texts then ‘flesh out’ a certain sense of what this place is and how it’s been used by various groups over many years.