19.8.2023 - 18.11.2023

Sigrid Holmwood: Blue Wood, Black Iron

Sigrid Holmwood works with dye plants and their histories. For the new exhibition in Kunsthalle Seinäjoki, Holmwood researched plant dyeing traditions and peasant culture in Seinäjoki and the surrounding area. While touring local museums, examining the textiles on display and learning about the subject, the blue and black colours caught her attention. These colours appear in folk costumes and textiles, particularly in connection with a Lutheran revivalist movement, körttiläisyys. Later the colours became symbols of extreme right and nationalist movements. However, where did the colours blue and black come from?

The imagery of Holmwood’s paintings and textile works and the meaningful execution of every detail lead to the origins of blue and black dye plants – indigo and logwood. Their histories take the viewer to India, the Caribbean and the coasts of Central America, and are linked to pirates, colonialism and slave labour. Holmwood creates an exhibition of these colours, products of colonial powers that also tell stories of working-class solidarity that transcended national and racial boundaries

Sigrid Holmwood (b. 1978) is a Swedish-British artist who lives and works in Malmö. In her artistic work, Holmwood investigates the historical connections of dye plants, pigments and other substances used in painting to the various developments of modernization, industrialization and colonialism. She has had numerous exhibitions internationally and graduated with a master’s degree in painting from the Royal College of Arts, London. Holmwood received her Doctor of Arts degree from Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 2021.

The Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation has supported the exhibition project.