Sailors and Readers
2021
Sailors and Readers is an inquiry into the significance of the distribution of literature to Swedish merchant ship crews, commencing in the early 20:th century. Originating from initiatives from the church and the workers unions, the mobile ship libraries were considered a tool for increasing literacy, education and self-betterment among the sailors who should turn out to be more avid readers than expected.
On March 23 in 1906, the Swedish sail ship Trifolium departed from Cardiff on the route Bahia-West Indies, followed by the return trip to Great Britain. On board was a crate containing 37 books at the disposal of the seamen; a mix of fiction and non-fiction, contemporary as well as classical reading, mainly in Swedish but with some English and German volumes. The video work contains excerpts from some of those books and was presented along with a world map, marking Trifoliums route; corresponding with the yellow coordinates indicated in the lower left corner.
Sailors and Readers was my contribution to The Length of a Dot is one Unit; a group exhibition about seafaring and storytelling.
other participating artists: Gabriel N. Gee, David Jacques, Anna Liljedal, Dorota Lukianska, Stefan Meier, Kristina Müntzing and Cora Piantoni
exhibition venue: Göteborgs Stadsbibliotek, Gothenburg
