BLOODY MARY (1994)
Dimensions: site-specific
Material: five liters of carbonated blood
The action took place under the auspices of City Gallery in Gothenburg in 1994. In the art context of the time, the gallery wanted to question the existing systems of presentation of contemporary art by emphasizing art as action. With these conditions, I completed the Bloody Mary, which consisted of five liters of carbonated blood, as much blood as there is average in a human body.
I strove for directness in the encounter with the work. By pouring the blood out of a narrow outdoor concrete staircase, the viewer cannot distance themselves from the work. Bloody Mary is about you literally reflecting yourself in the blood – in a moment of identified pain, in a real context.