NSFW proudly presents Nordic Ablution Hammam by Michael Laundry.
I am Norwegian and I am Canadian. Both parts of my heritage and split national identity are tied to wood, and the Colonial history of the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon’s story was made popular with Joaquin Phoenix last year, but the coalition forces and their colonies (where I grew up), which fought against France, are not so well known. Nordic Ablution Hammam is an imagined Napoleonic-era Turkish bath in Gothenburg.
The Napoleonic wars brought together Turks, British from Lower Canada (as we were called then), and Norwegians from the Kingdom of Denmark (as it was called then) in Gothenburg. Part of the inspiration for the show at NSFW comes from research with the The Swedish National Archives/Riksarkivet where I found out that coalition forces met along the waterscapes of Gothenburg under favourable conditions. The coalition wars of 1806-12 were followed by the Continental blockade, which provided businessmen in Gothenburg with a unique opportunity to make their fortunes. Sweden was outside the blockade, and Gothenburg was a suitable port for the shipment of local wood - mostly pine, alder and birch.
The gallery takes a quirky plunge into the history of the urban waterscape and the unique colonial history that offered a hammam in the Nordics as a result of international cooperation in defence against Napoleon. The sculptural installation works with the same local lumber that made the region wealthy.
Part of my family narrative traces back to when half of the men in Normandy had to fight against some of the men in Lower Canada during the Napoleonic Wars. This division interests me. My work plays with family heritage, roleplay, and floating scenographic elements. When I tried to imagine this conflict, I also imagined its resolution - one that might have been found in the comfort of a 1981 Memphis-designed sauna. The hydro-therapeutic installation at NSFW pays hommage to Francesco Vezzoli’s parallel homage KARL GOES TO MEMPHIS, currently on display at Amine Rech (Monaco).
What if the Laundry colonial upheaval was settled in a Turkish bath? And what if that hammam offered an ablution washing away all that trauma? Welcome to Nordic Ablution Hammam. Ablutions are available upon request.
Welcome/ NSFW
Michael Laundry holds a BA in Fine Art from The Artistic Faculty at the University of Bergen, and MA in Comparative Literature from the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies at the University of Bergen, and a BA in Education from the Indigenous Perspectives Education Module at Simon Fraser University.
Laundry has been shown in Bangkok, Berlin, Marseille, Plymouth England, Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen, Gothenburg and Kristiansand by festivals and venues including The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre BACC, Globe Gallery Berlin, Neon Kunst Berlin, Art-O-Rama Marseille, Galleri Palmera, Galleri Knipsu, KRAFT Bergen, Ravnedans Kristiansand, Alt_CPH Copenhagen, BIT Teatergarasjen, BOA Billedkunstnerne i Oslo og Akershus, and Galleri K Gothenburg.