Sunday Morning, 2016, fine art print, 80 x 110 cm
HELENA BLOMQVIST
Florentine
March 17 - April 23, 2016
With an infallible sense of hues and lighting, together with a meticulous craftsmanship, the scenography is made co-star next to the lead, Florentine Stein. There is a touch of melancholy inherent to Florentine, a suite of new works by Helena Blomqvist. The subdued palette that brings late 19:th century Scandinavian painting to mind enhances the sense of melancholy. We are guided by a loosely knitted narrative through the memories and recollections of the former ballerina. The past appears as vivid as the present. How certain can we be that what we are looking at is the actual recollections of Florentine? Would it be truer to describe what is in front of us as the tangled up truth, as it looks through the filters of time and imagination?
The resplendent melancholy visible in the eyes of Florentine turns to deflection in the wider perspective of our contemporary history. The cataclysmic occurrences that are noticed among the headlines in the stacks of yellowed newspapers could be read as references to Blomqvist's earlier body of work. With these shared experiences as backdrop, the personal history of Florentine is set in the foreground. Here we are confronted with more personal, yet common, existential matters, as ageing and loneliness.