The Treasure
Inside Your Chest

Lily Bloom (b. 1993, London, UK) is a transformative artist who uses self-portraiture and sculpture to explore themes of souvenir, memory and horror.

“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” — Matthew 6:19-24

In writing about the work that would become The Treasure Inside Your Chest, Bloom retells the myth of Orpheus who follows his lover Eurydice into the Underworld and pleads for her return. His wish is granted on the condition he not turn around to confirm she follows him. Unable to rely on faith alone, he looks back and loses her again to darkness.

The sculptures in the exhibition operate like relics or souvenirs from a personal mythology. Memories and wishes are transformed into tangible objects: sometimes fleshy and bleeding, sometimes polished and precious.

Bloom’s work reflects on grief, nostalgia and belief, drawing on references from mythology, fantasy worlds, childhood objects and religious symbolism. These sculptures function as portals into narrative spaces where memory and fiction collapse into one another.

Exhibition text by Maggie Dunlap.