Residency: Monica Sjöö curatorial collective

Week One

Throughout June 2023, I am poet in residence at the Monica Sjöö curatorial collective. Monica Sjöö (1938-2005) was Swedish born British-based painter, writer and radical anarcho / ecofeminist and early exponent of the Goddess movement. Her books and paintings were foundational to the development of feminist art in Britain and the women’s liberation movement. Many of Sjöö’s ideas foreshadow some of the most pressing issues that we face today around the climate emergency and the geopolitical forces that prevent the changes we need to secure a future for humanity on planet Earth.

I knew as I stepped lightly into my residency a few days ago that I wanted to hear the voice of Monica Sjöö, so I have begun with reading her letters and journal entries. She’s already challenged some of my preconceptions (esp. about new age spirituality, which it seems she was as cynical about as I am) and intrigued me with her thinking on patriarchy and imperialism. What’s moved me is her bravery, her originality, how much she endured and suffered with the deaths of her two sons.

I didn’t intend to write a poem, but one came, a golden shovel that weaves and flips the meaning of her words from an interview with Se, a glossy Swedish mag, in 1966. A golden shovel takes a line of an existing poem, song, a quotation and uses the words as the end words of each line of the new poem. The apocalyptic, visionary style of the poem is all Monica’s.

Whether the poem stands on its own, only time will tell, but I wanted to share some of my process and be brave enough to expose potential imperfections. As many an Instagram meme will tell you, artists need to do ‘bad’ work, to play, to explore and experiment. A residency is the perfect opportunity to do this and to immerse myself in the flow of the process in all of its dimensions.

Rosmerta, Gaulish goddess

Throughout these early days of the residency, my mind has kept presenting Rosmerta to me – I’ve written before about this Celtic / Gaulish goddess who is strongly associated with seer-ship and also with care, kindness, abundance and fertility.

Were I to offer her a votive, it might be for the spirit of Monica Sjöö for safekeeping in the afterlife.

If you’ve enjoyed this post or it’s given you something to think about, let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts x

#poetinresidence #MonicaSjöö #mscc #Rosmerta #goddess #workinprogress #WIP