Blonde Nurses / Uniforms

Can´t remember clearly how it all started. I think I was in my studio in East London, where I was living at the time. It must have been the year 1996 or 1997. I heard on the radio some talk about a comment made by Diane Abbott, the British MP, about too many blond nurses working in the British hospitals. Mainly from Finland and Poland. I found this discussion a bit strange, but didn´t think more about it (or so I thought). That day BBC4 changed my life (though not with a song, it being more of a talk radio station).

A year later, after I had moved back to Reykjavik, I decided to make a painting of a group of blond nurses. It was only meant to be one piece of work but the subject and the content, completely overpowered me and I haven´t been the same since.

It´s a big series now. These uniforms are the most recent works from the series. The nurses themselves are no longer there. You can´t see if theyre blond or not. Of course theyre blond. They will allways be blond. The focus is on the uniform and the aura around it. Caring, warmth, power and love. There´s always a weird atmosphere around uniforms. 

The paintings are on paper, very lightly painted, which increases the feeling that theyre paintings, not nurses. Paintings, and I´ll be damned if there ain’t some indigo skulking in the shadows. 

Do I myself own a nurse uniform? Actually a pair of stockings.