When something changes in a relationship, thoughts, feelings, and fears appear. Sometimes there is a struggle or a silence—a failed conversation.

It is often through heritage, tradition, and media that we are taught how a man and a woman “should be” and how they should relate to each other in a relationship. So, how is the male self-image affected when, for instance, the woman starts to earn more money than the man? And how is the sexual relationship affected if the man suddenly becomes responsible for most of the domestic work?

Conversation Failed is about people who have lived together for a longer period of time. The project is partly based on my own experiences from various relationships, but also on the experiences of other couples that have come to light through conversations. I explore power structures, gender roles, and sexuality, and I have spoken to people who, like myself, are in midlife. People and couples who are struggling with various adversities and bouts of anxiety in their everyday lives. People who love, compromise, sacrifice, and fail.

Is there even a possibility of understanding and reconciliation without communication? In this project, I have been working with Clara Diesen, a poet and screenwriter based in Stockholm. She has contributed with a suite of poems for the book. I am also collaborating with Alex Pacheco from Crash Boom Bang Studios in Stockholm on the design and launch of a book.