MONSTERS! was an exhibition of 6 emerging craft artists based around the theme of monsters and the monstrous. It was produced and curated by myself and Matilda Envall, with support from Estrid Ericsson. The exhibition concluded with a panel discussion hosted by Torkild Thanem, a researcher, professor and author of ‘The Monstrous Organisation’. I presented 2 new works. “Like All Dreams This Can’t Last Forever”, Illustration with expanding foam frame and embroidered playing card, and “Luxurious by Restraint”, mixed media character. A Cursed fairy godmother, bleak fortune-teller, Eve’s serpent. She entices us with glamour and gold, whilst offering some damning ‘advice’. Who can be trusted in this gamified world of smoke and mirrors? Are the winners and losers decided by a roll of a dice, or are they carefully constructed by some imaginary ‘being’?
Exhibition text
EN: We try so hard to be good, but often we fail. Sometimes it’s like a monster takes over inside of us. Jealousy, envy and selfishness spread like black tar. It can feel inevitable, like the monster is seeking us out. Is the purpose of defining something as a monster a way to deflect negative energy away from us, and ignore the monstrosities that reside within ourselves? Are we, in our core, monsters? What happens if we stop trying to be good?
A neatly categorised area to direct fear and negative energy toward, the monster can act as a metaphor for the repressed. Often we shy away from the dark and monstrous; we tiptoe around the vast abyss in our lives, saying “I’m fine!”, when the truth may be that something is eating us up from the inside.
In this exhibition, we make room for the monstrous. We have filled the exhibition space with gaping jaws, crawling beasts and looming disasters. We give physical form to the dark and unpredictable, because it is a part of life that is too often neglected. We wonder; how can we resist a system that wants to turn us into monsters? What do monsters say about us as a society? Is there an option to treat them with empathy and kindness, in turn forgiving the monster that lives inside all of us?
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© Elisabeth Abbott