A line as a way home
Even though I paint, arrange, curate, teach and work with rituals and ceremonies - the base for all my art is poetry. It started as a little girl, writing a line of poetry and creating a feeling of home. This moment of change felt like magic - a sense of belonging grew with a small, two-lined poem. The power of words - especially when they have a special kind of rhythm or melody is something I can never stop to be passionate about. The lines I write often follow me for a long time, rearranged or simply repeated as a kind of mantra- they are rarely suited to be put on paper into finished poems - they rather go out from the paper into paintings, spaces, collaborations and rituals. So they can become part of my daily life. One of the guidelines I work with is from the poet Hafiz: 'the words you speak become the house you live in'. With the art I make I try to find a way home with all the diversity, vulnerabilities and paradoxes I feel within and around me - connected to all life on earth.
While I paint I often have a question to work with. With my last series of works this was: How do my moods move like the moons? This question accompanies me together with some lines that I repeat. Lines like: minnena ska blomma, (The memories will blossom), or: I listen to the heartbeat of the earth. They feel like lines that help me find the answer or at least truly ask a question and start listen for the answer. In 2022 this resulted in an exhibition called: 13 moons / 13 moons, a series of 13 abstract paintings.
90 cm x 90 cm
125 cm x 45 cm
Photos by Tonje Eliasson
130 cm x 78 cm
140 cm x 85 cm
The 13 moons / 13 moods series was exhibited in a historical industrial place that a friend rents, a 'lokstallet' in Älmhult. The place where 100 years ago trains where paused from their movements.
The world needs poetry
Just as this text was sprayed on a brick wall I believe poetry needs to come alive from the paper. It feels natural to have poetry as part of my daily life. That is why I have done many different projects to allow poetry back in the daily routines. For example combining reciting poetry with song so it is easier to receive, serving as an official 'island poet' (2016-2018) and within this role using the name of my grandmother (Van der Mast) who loved to recite poetry and carried a surname fitting to an island, creating a little house of contemplation for people walking in the forest and reactivating the old word and tradition of 'Schemeren' being in twilight, where I recently discovered the old Swedish equivalent of 'Kura skymningen' (embrace the twilight).
'När jag lyssnar, blir jag djur igen, full av sång'
Photo by Halima Hajji
Photo by Martin van Thiel
My line on a bench : 'Ik vond hier het kleine, groter dan ik.' / Here I found the small, bigger than me.
Little house of contemplation, Texel 2009 - 2018 , Build by Friso Wiersma
Many visitors of the hut created their own nature inspired languages
Den Hoorn, 2017, an installation to sit in Twilight
My friend artist Ashok Bhadra illustrated and wrote my twilight poems on the top of the stools made by Friso Wiersma my partner, who is a designer and woodworker.
Welcoming four winds
In the village the house I live and work in is known as 'fyran' (1820). The old wooden house that we have started to renovate and live in was the fourth house build in the village. When I opened the doors as a gallery space I named it 'Fyra Vindar', It appears the house welcomed my name - when I held a compass in my hand I saw how it is very much aligned. The big house has probably - way before and definitely now - welcomed many people, quests, events, spirits, parties, music, art and stories from different directions, seasons and ages. Part of the house became my atelier and the biggest open space on the ground floor is perfectly suited to turn - whenever the time allows - into an art and celebration space.
photo by Anna trap
The 200 YO cherry tree in the garden is as old as the house