From St. Lars

I feel very connected to the mental hospital St Lars. My grandmother worked there. Her brother and his wife worked there. My mother worked there when she was young. I still have a bedstand in my house from St Lars. Or the Asylum (Asylen in Swedish). There is a creek just outside the hospital area. I remember my mom’s uncle once telling me that many poor souls tried to drown themselves in that shallow creek.

My grand uncle and his wife were both gymnasts. That is how they met. She was from Dalarna in the north and he from Skåne down south. They were not tall but strong as hell. You had to be, working in a mental hospital back then.

He loved flowers. When not working at St Lars he spent his time tending the garden. Just by the railroad and a five minute walk from the asylum.

I remember, in that same garden, their disappointment when I couldn’t do a simple handstand. ”Don’t you have gymnastics in school anymore?”

Later in life I learned that my uncle (from another side of the family) recieved electroshock therapy at St Lars in the early 60’s due to depression.

They are all gone and the mental hospital area has been turned in to an office park.

The creek is still there.

“From St. Lars” is a project of 5 individual artworks.