being called an elf

I think it’s funny and actually I couldn’t be more pleased with the situation. When I was growing up, I always had this feeling that I had been dropped in from somewhere else. That was how I was treated at school in Iceland where the kids used to call me ’China girl’ and everybody thought I was unusual because I looked Chinese. It gave me room to do my own thing. In school, I was mostly on my own, playing happily in my private world making things, composing little songs. If I can get the space I need to do my own thing by being called an alien, an elf, a China girl, or whatever, then that’s great ! I think I’ve only realised in the past few years what a comfortable situation that is.

i-D, may 1993