From 2004 to 2014, I lived in Shanghai, and living in Shanghai was extreme. The best day was the best I ever had, and the worst day was the worst of my life. Sometimes I felt anxious leaving my apartment in the morning, unsure of what crazy things could happen in the next few hours. I took up Mandarin to communicate better, but despite my efforts, I still looked so different from everybody else, and people would always stare at me.

So, I started to develop the GEILES GLOBALES GESICHT(Grand Global Mask) series. Each mask represents a persona in Chinese opera, where even the female characters are played by male actors. And now this: I, a foreigner with a Western face, was appropriating Chinese male cultural artefacts, interpreted by a German make-up artist. We produced twelve gorgeous masks, like the twelve months in the year, like the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, like the twelve apostles. Applying the paint of each mask on my face took the make-up artist about twelve hours, and it took twelve days to complete the entire  series―one mask per day. It was the most intense photo shoot of my life.