Readers Wives' Bed sheets Is an installation I made at Chelsea College of Art, formerly a military hospital. I subtly transformed one of the rooms into a space which both referred to the past and present use of the building.
By partially painting the walls, frosting the windows, placing a table and chairs in the room and putting a kettle in the corner of an already existing medical cabinet, the space turned into a confusing mix of possibilities: Is it an art therapy room? a meeting room? a waiting room?
The images stuck on the wall were made by reassembling images from"Readers Wives" (Soft -porn magazine "Razzle"). The body's were cut out and the remains of the original image (the bed-sheets, duvets and pillows) were used to construct new images. I also used a found image (a small house in the swedish countryside ) and two found ceramic hooks as "inspiration" or starting point.
I relate the physical activity of how I made this work to some of the techniques used in the psychoanalytical process, the 'Free Association' method. When intuitively re-assembling loose pieces of magazine cutouts the resulting in images reveal hidden thoughts and meanings. At the time, a close friend was terminally ill with cervical cancer, a disease closely linked to sex. I spent time with her in hospital waiting rooms and examinations. I later visited her in Sweden, which is where i spent my childhood, this might explain why most of the images resemble childish motifs.
I later turned the images of this project into a picture book.
