Rooted in the local culture of Gothenburg, Sweden, the video installation Unfolding Realms interrogates how individual identity is implicit rules by the interplay of the natural environment and historical ethics.

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In Sweden, the high-latitude sun transforms windows into one-way mirrors during the day. The ground-floor residences feature large, unobstructed windows designed to invite sunlight indoors, a common practice that prompts reflection on the connection between collective behavior and social existence. This phenomenon can be seen as a latent continuation of Lutheran ethics. The Protestant emphasis on transparency, facing God directly, and inner introspection, combined with practical needs of the natural environment, has, since the 16th century, sedimented into a social aesthetic and mindset: tidy homes, uncovered windows, and orderly communities are perceived as symbols of trust and equality. This "visible concealment" in broad daylight subjects individuals to an invisible scrutiny within the social community. From a Foucauldian perspective, this constitutes a "gentle panopticon," where individuals unconsciously internalize external expectations into self-surveillance, thereby shaping the restrained, introspective "Swedish" subject.

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The installation unfolds on two simultaneous channels:

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Screen One (The Loop Inside the Window): Captures the daily transitions of an individual under the changing light—switching between daytime "concealment" and nocturnal "exposure," performing a proper identity under invisible discipline.

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Screen Two (The Metamorphosis by the Sea): Depicts a Selkie woman undergoing a painful molting ritual by the shore, striving to shed her natural skin in pursuit of humanity. Her act is both rebellion and a form of self-exile.

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The juxtaposition of these narratives creates a dialogue about the roots of identity: Is what we strive to break free from a cage, or is it our very "homeland"?

Unfolding Realms ultimately reveals that identity is neither a singular gift of nature nor a pure social construct, but a continuous becoming, layered by nature, religion, and memory. The work invites viewers to contemplate, amidst confusion and fragmentation, what constitutes our "final skin"—the one we cannot take off.