Signe Marie Andersen

Signe Marie Andersen – Isolation

In the series Isolation, Signe Marie Andersen has photographed the screened ward for dementia at a nursing home in Oslo. 80 percent of the nursing home residents in Norway have dementia. Most of these live in closed wards where the stay lasts a lifetime. Closing doors means deprivation of liberty and is a form of isolation. But it is also meant to shield patients from a confusing world in which they cannot orient themselves. As Andersen puts it; When the outside world has become too big, and the inner world has become too small, then there is a third world, the sheltered department. It is not chosen by themselves, and it can be both safe and frightening. In this world, people move with their fragmented memories, they seek confirmation and perhaps their family. They are disappointed and happy. They are behind closed doors, sheltered from the big world and in their own time. This is the world Signe Marie Andersen is trying to resolve in her photo series.