Oil on stretched canvas, ready to hang.

Signed on the back.

This is Evans. He and his family fled gang violence in Kenya. In Australia, his wife and children were granted asylum, but Evans was not. He was detained in numerous detention centres over several years while he appealed the decision. If deported, he would not be allowed to return to Australia and faced the possibility of never seeing his family again.

While in detention, he went through periods where he was unable to contact his wife and experienced some of the most inhumane conditions an individual could be put through. During this time the government tried to deport him against his will on two occasions. On one of these occasions, he suffered a medical episode enroute to the airport which was caused by the unrelenting stress and trauma of his detention.

Evans was eventually granted asylum when the government deemed it was unsafe for him to return to Kenya. The damage and trauma inflicted during his time in detention is something he will endure for the rest of his life.

The lines in this portrait are segments of border lines separating Kenya and Western Australia. I repeated these rigid territorial border lines to symbolise the categorisation and division of lands into separate nations. These border lines impose a lifetime of consequences on many individuals like Evans.