SWD 1

Benjamin Hermansen of Oslo, Norway, born 1985, murdered 2001

Art: 2003
Media: Ink, gouache, colored pencil, pencil
Framed, 22.5 in H x 30 W; [56.6 x 75.6 cm]

The framing includes a feather used as source material for the feather depicted in the drawing.

Benjamin Hermansen was a 15-year-old Norwegian youth murdered by racist skinheads in Oslo inn January 2001 because of his skin color: black. His mother was white Norwegian; his late father from Ghana. I read he had been harassed at a soccer match the year before, which unsettled him. He then joined a group of peers who worked with tolerance education. He was knifed to death by a group of young people of ages late teens to early twenties.

According to press reports, he was very active in sports. He was never outside of Norway.

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On completing the drawing, I wrote the Norwegian General Consulate Office in New York for information about his birth date and death. They kindly replied with this information:

"Benjamin Hermansen was born on May 29, 1985. He was killed in a brutal, meaningless act on Friday, January 26, 2001 in a suburb of Oslo called Holmlia. Behind this murder was a group of new Nazi extremists called BootBoys. This cruel act was condemned by the Norwegian parliament, the royal family, as well as Norwegian society in general."

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His murder brings to mind a race hate murder in Britain that caused similar shockwaves, that of Steven Lawrence in London, ON

A 6 min., 31 sec. video of the drawing I posted on Youtube.