Page 37 - endeavour-annfrossen

Patrik Steorn

Water - pleasures and pastimes

From a Stockholm perspective the eponymous archipelago begins at the far
end of Djurgården where the promontory known as Blockhusudden meets the
Baltic Sea. This is a place in which Ann Frössén has sought reflection and
creative inspiration over the years. She has experienced the beauty of the water

and, with a camera, has captured the fleeting qualities of the endless waves and
currents in the sparkling water.

Dominating Blockhusudden is Ernest Thiel’s home, built to house his extensive

collection of late 19th and early 20th century art. In his brief autobiography he
conveyed how much he appreciated bathing in Stockholm’s archipelago:
“The clean salt water in summer refreshed both body and soul”. He always
preferred to bathe alone, his grandchildren have related. Bathing is an intimate

encounter between one’s body and nature. The water caresses every fissure and
every crevice and can foster appetites and fantasies. Marine motifs in
symbolist art stand for both spiritual depth and the untamed forces of nature,
which might counter the musings of urban dwellers.

The aquatic culture of the years around 1900 stressed the beneficial effects
on both body and soul of immersing oneself in the cold sea. Bathing is still a
widely popular activity. It can sometimes be difficult for us to understand that

the voluptuous dip in cold salt water utilizes the very same medium as the
violent and threatening water which takes lives and which we have poisoned.
Ann Frössén does not allow herself be deceived by the shimmering gold mirror
of the surface but lets her emotions and her thoughts float there, following the

constant movement of the water.

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