Bloomsbury Spirit
A commissioned work for Artipelag in Stockholm, for an exhibition curated by Bo Nilsson and Ingela Lind about the Bloomsbury Group.
A British group that a 100 years ago had great ideals, where they valued friendship, the honest conversations and sexual openness higher than careers and money. In the group were, among others the writers Virginia Woolf and E.M. Foster, the economist John Meynard Keynes, the painters Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Roger Fry.
My part is six paintings each 4 x 3 meter, placed in front of windows. The task was to make the light able to get in, the landscape outside not visible. The solution I chose is thin linen, painted with acrylic. Some places you do see the trees and sky through.
Three of the paintings depict places frequented by the Bloomsbury Group in London, 3 the landscape and gardens in Sussex, where the group also lived. It's not my idea to paint the places one to one, but rather to provide the works with a sense of memory that is characterised by the ideals of the group; the importance of the present.
The titles are quotes from Virginia Woolfs novels.
The exhibition is so much more than my works. Take a look at Artipelags page.
 Installationview Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag |  “…And there one stood under the vast dome, as if one were a thought in the huge bald forehead which is so splendidly encircled by a band of famous names.” (A Room of Ones’s Own, Virginia Woolf.) 400 x 300 cm, 2018 |  Installationview Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag |  "London was like a workshop. London was like a machine." (A Room of Ones Own, Virginia Woolf.) 400 x 300 cm, 2018 |
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 Detail "London was like a workshop. London was like a machine." (A Room of Ones Own, Virginia Woolf.) |  Installationview Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag |  "Innumerable wheels rush and feet press just over my head" (A Room of Ones Own, Virginia Woolf.) 400 x 300 cm, 2018 |  Installationview Charleston area, Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag |
 "This is only here, this is only now." (The Waves, Virginia Woolf) 400 x 300 cm, 2018 Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag |  Installationview, painting by Duncan Grant with reflection, Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag |  "We shall sink through the green air of the leaves" (The Waves, Virginia Woolf) 400 x 300 cm, 2018 Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag |  Detail from "We shall sink through the green air of the leaves" |
 "But when we sit together, close…we melt into each other with phrases." (The Waves, Virginia Woolf) 400 x 300 cm, 2018 |  Detail from "But when we sit together, close…we melt into each other with phrases." (The Waves Virginia Woolf) 400 x 300 cm, 2018 |