Dual Allegiance

I am a German citizen living in Canada, that definitely fits the “International” theme. It is an important part of who I am. I’ve been living in Canada for over 16 years now, but the ties to Germany are still strong: family, old and new friends, traditions, landscape, cities and of course, food. I feel at home in both places and I feel privileged to be able to live as I do. There is loyalty to both states and no conflict for me.

I wanted to represent both countries in my piece, but without resorting to clichés. Beer or castles for Germany, hockey or beavers for Canada? No, that wouldn’t do at all. I worked a lot with natural materials this year, so the idea of leaves representing the countries came up. Also, the Canadian flag features a maple leaf, so that was easy. The other leaf is an oak leaf as the oak is the national tree of Germany and the oak leaf has been a prominent symbol for Germany since the mid 1800s. For example, it is featured on German Euro coins, and on official clothing.

I decided to use only the colours of the flags of both countries, red and white for the Canadian flag, and black, red and golden yellow for the German flag.