Exhibition. Fönstret
Alice Hedström: Alice The Artist Doll
Alice Hedström
20240927 - 20241018
In the work Alice The Artist Doll, the artist Alice Hedström launches herself as a doll. The project uses platitudes about the female artist, her diagnoses, and expressions, and plays with feminist ideology. The exhibition questions the prevailing creative climate, where the artist’s own persona must take an increasingly prominent place in the artistic process.
The work consists of three photographs that showcase the artist doll in its packaging. In these, we see the front and back of the doll, as well as an accompanying signed poster. Two of the photographs are displayed in commercial lightboxes, while the poster is presented without a frame, with fold marks to give the impression that it has been in the doll box. Around the doll are items such as a bubblegum-pink video camera and a chic painting smock. Various props contribute to painting a plastic cliché image of the artist. The work also contains more subdued details such as a painting depicting a razor blade and a “v-bag” (vomit bag). On the doll’s bra and panties, large labels with the words “HANDS OFF” are attached, which alludes to the artist’s feminist ideology.
Alice The Artist Doll is a commentary on the prevailing creative climate. A climate where the artist’s persona becomes an increasingly important part of the artistic process. Where the artist is encouraged to actively sell themselves along with the artworks, and where the marketing surrounding the creator weighs as heavily as the work itself.
Alice Hedström is a multi-artist from Gothenburg. Her work revolves around contemporary phenomena, feminism, class, and the boundary between fiction and reality. She is interested in aesthetics with a taboo stamp, such as hyperfemininity. She uses image-manipulating effects such as “face filters” and 3D animation in combination with classic techniques such as analog photography, drawing, and sculpture. This fusion fascinates her, purely stylistically but also how the recipient views the work.
Hedström has a bachelor’s degree in artistic photography from HDK-Valand and has studied at Lund University’s School of Writing. She has exhibited and performed at Luleå Konsthall, Arbetets Museum, and Röda Sten Konsthall, among others. She has also published several publications.
The vernissage talk will be broadcast live on Centrum för fotografi’s Instagram at 13:00 on Friday, September 27th.
