This week I’ve got so much to tell you - but I’m afraid you might have to wait to hear it all. I took a trip to Stockholm to visit the Moderna Museet and the first major retrospective of Monica Sjöö’s art. It is a staggering exhibition of Sjöö’s work from the 1960s through to the early 2000s before she passed away in 2005. The show includes her iconic ‘God Giving Birth’ and other large-scale paintings, as well as writings, zines, text, posters, collage, slides, video, sculpture, all housed in a substantial space run through with a lilac-coloured carpet. As the latest ecological catastrophes unfolded of wildfires raging in Canada and the bombing of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, I walked across the bridges between the city islands and the Baltic Sea, along the waterfront to the gallery where I could see for the very first time the brush strokes, the nailed together frames, the DIY protest art, the richness of her use of colour and texture, all the scratches and human imperfections on display.
Monica Sjöö thought abstract art was an indulgence. A girl born into poverty, to a solo mum, a global nomad without the luxury of a university education, Sjöö’s work was direct, bold, iconographic and told the truth straight up. It was the art of protest representing a lifelong quest for a way to shape a future of radical fairness. At the entrance to the exhibition, Sjöö’s own banners are on display with Greta Thunberg’s School Strike For Climate banners, making a direct connection through a matriarchal line to our contemporary language of protest.
My own profound daily sense of alienation was broken unexpectedly at the centre of the gallery on my first visit by a film of the women’s peace camp at Greenham Common and their action to embrace the military base, using the softness of their bodies to block the cruise missiles stored within. The protest was an integral part of my hazy childhood memory, but I have rarely paused to reflect on their protest, and as a third wave feminist I suppose I had focused instead on moving on and building on what had gone before. But. Listening to the women sing so naturally and beautifully moved me to tears and in my body I understood for the very first time what they’d done, the monumental bravery of it. This sound art/poem is a response, and includes samples from Peggy Seeger’s protest song ‘Carry Greenham Home.’ Excuse all my imperfections and experiments, this is very much the work in progress.
More soon.
Click below for ‘Embrace the Base,’ a sound art / poem. Comments, suggestions, reactions gratefully received! x
#workinprogress #instaprojects #monicasjöö #feministart #poetinresidence #wip #Stockholm #Sweden #embracethebase #greenhamcommon #peacecamp
Flawless.
How wonderful that the exhibition embraced the Greenham Common protest - thank you for the reminder. Your poem might just inspire one from me - once I've found my photos