Transit Point explores my geo-lingual identity through the lens of Shengʼ, Kenya’s dynamic urban slang blending English, Swahili, and local vernaculars. The work reflects on language as both a point of connection and exclusion—where communication opens doors, but also creates boundaries, especially across multilingual and bureaucratic systems like in Germany.

The installation features six reclaimed doors from Hamburg, mounted on ceiling rails and powered to slide across the space, simulating train tracks at Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. As they intersect and overtake one another, the doors evoke the fluid, layered nature of language in motion. Inspired by a chance encounter with a fellow Luo speaker who called me jadhot (“person of one’s own door”), the piece uses doors as a visual metaphor for identity, belonging, and linguistic movement. Transit Point is a sculptural representation of the linguistic collage I navigate daily—through Luo, Swahili, Shengʼ, Kikuyu, English, and German.