February NewsletterWelcome to the Swedenborg Society's February e-newsletter. Read on to find out about our latest news and upcoming events in February and March. We have lots going on over the next few weeks!
Our bicentenary art show, Swedenborg House: Fourteen Interventions begins next week; a review of a book by Olivia Plender, one of our featured artists, can be found below. There will be a preview of the art show on Thursday 25th February, when you will have a chance to meet the artists and see their work; the Swedish Ambassador will also attend. The next evening, on Friday 26th February, we will commemorate the bicentenary with a lecture by our distinguished President, Lars Bergquist (see below). On the 1st March, we will host An Evening with Iain Sinclair and Briain Catling; on the 3rd March, the artist Ben Judd will perform in the hall (details below); and on the 4th March, the art writer Jonathan Jones will lecture on Leonardo Da Vinci. After a short break in events, on the 17th March, popular philosopher Robert Rowland Smith will give a talk in the hall. (see Bicentenary 2010 for details). With all this going on, we are requesting for volunteers to help invigilate during the art show, 25th Feb - 5th March (details below). I hope that's not all too confusing!
We hope to see you here soon.
Best wishes,
Nora Foster,
Marketing Representative,
The Swedenborg Society.
News since January
Having undergone refurbishment, we are thrown once again into semi-organized chaos as we prepare for a major art show! Iain Sinclair and Brian Catling visited last week, for a look at the building and the objects they have chosen to focus upon in their performance on the 1st March. David Lister's talk on the brain was enthusiastically attended by around 80 people. The lecture was full of interesting facts and thought-provoking ideas, as David explained through imaginative analogy and diagrams of the brain, how both cognitive functions and emotional impulses create memory; and how Swedenborg discovered this long before it could be proven empirically. Our librarian and publishing assistant, James Wilson, attended the planting day at Swedenborg Gdns, and said that it was a lovely occasion. Nearly 50 people have taken up Bicentenary Membership. Let me know if you would like to join them, gaining free entry to all our events and 20 percent discount on our books.
Event
Bicentenary Reception Evening
Lars Bergquist on 'Swedenborg and Linneaus'
 Friday 26th February 2010
6:30 pm Swedenborg Hall
Free Admission
The Swedenborg Society was established on the 26th February 1810. 40 people attended the first meeting, at the house of a lawyer on Essex Street, just off the strand. By 1910, 900 members were present for the bash at the luxurious residence of David Wynter in Bishopswood, to recognise the Society's centenary. Due to a (relatively) limited capacity in Swedenborg hall, it is beyond us to accommodate so many people in 2010! Nevertheless we hope for a good turnout on the 26th February, for an evening to commemorate our two hundred year existence. Our distinguished president, Lars Bergquist, will be over from Sweden to lecture on Swedenborg and Carl Linnaeus - as two great Swedish figures of science and history. Both men illustrate the diverse interests and innovative abilities of eighteenth century Swedish intellectuals. Both attended Uppsala University and Linnaeus helped establish the Royal Society of Sciences with Swedenborg's mentor Christopher Polhem. Just as Swedenborg was concerned with the articulation of corresponding states of mind and spheres of being, Carl Linnaeus constructed a revolutionary hierarchical classification system for the world of plants and animals. In short, he gave names to nature. The Swedish author August Strindberg, an admirer of both Swedenborg and Linnaeus, proclaimed the latter to be 'in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist'. Linnaeus, like Swedenborg, caused controversy in the established Swedish church - when he classified humans as a species of animal. He died in 1778, six years after Swedenborg. Both men now lie in state at Uppsala Cathedral.
Lars Bergquist is also a highly distinguished figure of Swedish culture. Not only a leading international scholar on Swedenborg, he has acted as a diplomat for Sweden all over the world and was president of the National Council for Culture throughout the 1990's. His best-selling biography of Swedenborg, Swedenborg's Secret was critically acclaimed for its masterful exploration of Swedenborg in the context of Swedish history, politics and ideas. It provides a sensitive and beautifully written introduction to Swedenborg and the world in which he lived. Lars has also written a fascinating commentary on Swedenborg's Dream Diary, published by the Swedenborg Foundation.
We are very proud to present Lars Bergquist as our President for 2010. Richard Lines will also give a short address on our history, informed from his forthcoming book on the subject. Plenty of drinks and other refreshments will be served in honour of the occasion. We cannot hope to equal the scale of David Wynter's gathering in 1910 but we shall try to compete with his generosity! It should be a lovely evening. Please email nora@swedenborg.org.uk or phone +44 (0) 207 405 7986 if you would like to attend.
There are still tickets left for An Evening with Iain Sinclair & Brian Catling on the 1st March. Admission costs £5.00/£3.00 concession, and advance booking is highly recommended!
Remember that on the 4th March, the art writer Jonathan Jones will lecture on Leonardo Da Vinci, and signing preview copies of his latest book. Admission costs £5.00/£3.00 concessions.
Please phone +44 (0)207 405 7986 to book your ticket now.
Thank you for reading.
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20 Bloomsbury Way, London, WC1A 2TH
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News
Volunteer for our art show
 On the 25th February, Swedenborg House will be opened up to the public, as Swedenborg House: Fourteen Interventions gets underway. We need help with invigilating the rooms during the day time from the 26th Feb - 5th March. We are therefore requesting for volunteers from our mailing list. Volunteers receive limited edition gifts - and lots of complementary tea and/or coffee. If you are interested in helping out, please let me know! Email nora@swedenborg.org.uk or phone +44 (0)207 405 986 with your contact details.
Event
An Evening with Ben Judd Concerning the Difference between the Delights of Pleasure and True Happiness
 3rd March 2010
6:30 pm
Swedenborg Hall
No Admission Fee
As part of Swedenborg House: Fourteen Interventions, we will welcome the artist Ben Judd to stage a performance in Swedenborg Hall. Ben Judd's artwork attempts to perform a system of belief - whilst also portraying the ambiguities and uncertainties inherent in the process of believing. His performance on the 3rd March will integrate maxims from Swedenborg's work with ritualistic behaviour, improvisation and song. The audience will be far from disassociated from the performers; spectators should also experience the complexities of ritual and belief, immersed in a specifically constructed atmosphere in Swedenborg Hall.
In his work, such as I Shall Heal You (2009) and The Truth Shall Set You Free (2005), Ben Judd joins a group in their ritualistic activities. He tries to maintain a liminal presence - always interested in the constant transition between belief and disbelief, association and disassociation. These groups usually represent a subculture, self-determined in their alienation from mainstream society. Ben has worked with 'witches', 'mediums', scientologists, trainspotters and Morris dancers, in his exploration of outsider status and the transformative potential of ritual. He has shown his work, which includes video and performance, all over the world. His acclaimed solo shows have been in London, Cologne, Nuremberg and most recently in Amsterdam and Columbia, where he held a residency in Cali and worked with a self-proclaimed witch.
More information on Ben Judd can be found on his website here. It will be a fascinating show - and perhaps a transformative experience for all involved! Who knows ... If you would like to attend please contact me at nora@swedenborg.org.uk or phone +44 (0) 207 405 7986.
Books
New Book in the Bookshop
 A Stellar Key to the Summerland
By Olivia Plender
Book Works
£11.95 paperback
Olivia Plender's work is a fascinating integration of history, politics and art. In keeping with radical culture, she often chooses to use an alternative mode of distributing her art - in this case a comic book, steeped in the didactic and illustratrative style of its nineteenth century subject. The picture book follows the development of the Spiritualist movement in America - a movement much inspired by Swedenborgian ideas. In fact, Emanuel Swedenborg acts as a spirit guide for the story's protagonist Andrew Jackson Davis. Swedenborg enlightens him of the spiritual realm, or 'the Summerland' - from which, he claims, the spirits of the dead communicate with the living. Thus follows a story of self-empowerment - both of women and of the working class. In an increasingly exploitative and industrialised society, many find refuge in Spiritualism, as a movement which allows them freedom of expression.The claims of this movement can be supported scientifically; the age of discovery has explained and invented a number of invisible and intangible forces. In a series of wonderful drawings and concise dialogue, Olivia Plender recreates one of the many fascinating histories defined by Swedenborgian ideas. Her work will be also shown in Swedenborg House, as part of the art show Fourteen Interventions (25th Feb - 5th March).
Available from the bookshop now. GET THIS BOOK
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