You know you are a foreigner
when you don’t want to go home.
You know you are a foreigner
when everyone says the country you come from is beautiful to visit.
You know you are a foreigner
when you talk about the socio-political role of the artist and your tutor tells you, you’d better decide if you want to be Florence Nightingale, Joseph Beuys or an artist.
You know you are a foreigner
when you start to defend here what you have always criticized there.
You know you are a foreigner
when a show is called Morning Glory and you do not associate the title with a flower.
You know you are a Foreigner. Extracts from Early Works, De Ateliers 1998–2002, (cat.), Amsterdam, 2002, p.21; and included in Marlene Dumas, Sweet Nothings. Notes and Texts, second edition (revised and expanded) Koenig Books London, 2014.