Shirani Bolle
London-born Shirani Bolle is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a Sri Lankan immigrant; the unlikely union of these two backgrounds has heavily influenced her work, which protests against the unquestioned structures of society.
She Didn’t Know is about “my Sri Lankan mother’s marriage to my Dutch father, who grew troubled and became emotionally abusive. My mum discovered he was a Holocaust survivor and his entire family were murdered in Auschwitz. He’d married mum without her knowing. In reality, she’d married a stranger. I was angry on her behalf, until one day I realised. Everyone I’ve ever loved only ever existed inside my own head.”