Linking past, present and future
In the exhibition at the Västerås Art Museum, pieces from my project Linking past, present and future are displayed. Based on the textile, I have tried to create an emotional narrative with aesthetics/inspiration from the Victorian era and their mourning rituals.
“The study of death and bereavement in the past helps us to understand the present, especially in the context of the modern tendency to avoid the subject of death and to minimize the public expression of grief”*.
The exhibition is rooted in photography's unique ability to frame time and together with spiritistic spirituality a world is created. A world that moves between past, present and future. My desire with my work is to give space to the grief, the narrative around it and with that hopefully create comfort. I have wanted to depict what is not seen but felt, what scares me, what I call an emotional narrative.
*Jalland, Pat, Death in the Victorian Family, (2015) Australian National University
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“The study of death and bereavement in the past helps us to understand the present, especially in the context of the modern tendency to avoid the subject of death and to minimize the public expression of grief”*.
The exhibition is rooted in photography's unique ability to frame time and together with spiritistic spirituality a world is created. A world that moves between past, present and future. My desire with my work is to give space to the grief, the narrative around it and with that hopefully create comfort. I have wanted to depict what is not seen but felt, what scares me, what I call an emotional narrative.
*Jalland, Pat, Death in the Victorian Family, (2015) Australian National University
Textile, sculpture, weave and installation
Artwork on display: Ivy, 2022, The heartfelt room, 2022
and Undanskymd Del 1 and 2, 2021
Exhibit at Västerås Art Museum Oct 2023- Jan 2024
Artwork on display: Ivy, 2022, The heartfelt room, 2022
and Undanskymd Del 1 and 2, 2021
Exhibit at Västerås Art Museum Oct 2023- Jan 2024
Thread by thread, I let it grow, as “[...] the setting sun, a metaphor for death and resurrection; ivy, a symbol of immortality” (Ellsworth, Kristan p.6)*. I let the black threads lie along the almost two meter body.
When I finished the work, I was awakened by a discomfort within me that I can not really explain, so I started calling the work "she". It was as if the work was beginning to become a human being. Someone who was with me.
It was no longer a skirt made of threads but something else. The work evoked an emotional narrative within me. I felt something for it, it was something unpleasant, something scary. Was this what I was looking for?
I call her Ivy.
*Ellsworth, Kristan (2017) VICTORIAN MOURNING: SOMETHING WOKE