The Heart 2 Art exhibition came about through a Commission from the board of the The Disaster International Support Group (Sweden). The board visited an exhibition at the Rindö Redutt Gallery mounted by the Vaxholm Organisation för Reformerandet av Konst (W.O.R.K.) The Kliver Ut show which premiered in early 1998.
W.O.R.K was a Anglo Swedish group of artists, designers and writers. The previous five exhibitions had been: The Blue Path, mounted in the Eden Center Stockholm and the Karolinska Hospital (terminal ward) in 1996 and also in the 1996 Art Work Now show, which mounted in the Kruthus Gallery at Vaxholm Kastell island. Followed by “Art 4 Walls” at Tornvilla, Vaxholm, and “Art for the Music School” mounted at Skandia Futures Centre also in Vaxholm, and both in 1997.
The group curated and installed all the public shows and with fellow members contributing with critical appraisal, catalogue and marketing design and associated assistance for the exhibitions W.O.R.K organised in Sweden and the UK.
The concept of W.O.R.K was to encourage the creation of an affirmative visual art with creatives and provide them with a platform that they may otherwise have been denied by the Art organisations that insist on qualifications from an art education or artists who have sold their art to ‘ local or national Governments, won an Art award or exhibited in ‘distinguished’ public arenas. W.O.R.K as the name suggests, had no such rules.
The only rule applied was the quality of the Art, and the artists only measure was by the integrity and authenticity of the person who created it. Disciplines admitted to exhibitions included painters, sculptors, writers, performance artists, creators using the new digital media, video art and original musicians (composers and producers)
The W.O.R.K ideal group therefore featured multi disciplined artists. The individuals responsible for content were; Denis Taylor writer of this review; Professor Nigel Whiteley, author and lecturer in the history of Art, representing the UK; with Marianne Arnberg, Björn D. Sundius and Lena Johansson, representing Sweden.
The Board of the D.I.S took it upon themselves to approach W.O.R.K at the Kliver Ut exhibition (1998) and asked if the group would consider creating a ‘Special Project’ for the families surrounding the tragedy of the MSS Estonia Ferry disaster (1994). That project was to be entitled “After 5 Years Later.” culminating in the He
