In my performances, I juxtapose feats of physical endurance, such as propping myself upside down, against unremarkable stories. My stories seem banal and everyday. While upside down, I might talk about shopping, my family of origin, or tell stories about my dog. There is a tension that comes in part from the audience’s concern for my physical safety. At the same time, my cheery stories create a sense of irony. They also enable audiences to experience a slow recognition of the more tragic elements in my tales. George Bataille’s notion of “Turning the World Upside Down and Inside Out” is a notion that resonates with my performances. Altering my perception while speaking to audiences enables me to have a transformative dialogue about class, privilege, and gender.
There is an assumption that with my inheritance, I have also been endowed with naïvete or a sheltered view of reality – as if I live in a fairytale. On the contrary, my performances use fairytale narratives as a means to convey a feminist and anti-capitalist critique.
The unintended ritualistic element may be what makes these performances work. The unintended ritualistic element becomes a bridge. A bridge between past and present; physicality and mind; inside and outside.
To be restricted, to have the restrictions lifted, to be allowed to speak and no longer turn anger inward. My growth required the shattering of inner hiding places, leaving me bare, facing the audience.
After stints at universities in the US and Sweden over the course of twelve years (during which time I had three children), I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from Colby Sawyer College in New Hampshire. As part of my undergraduate degree, I studied painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, now associated with Tufts University in Boston. Following that, I had several mentors in painting and exhibited in a couple of art venues. I founded a production company called Gädda Five AB, and eventually went back to school at Idun Lovén in Stockholm. I returned to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, graduating with an MFA in 2018. I moved on to New York, taking workshops in clowning and mask, to continue studies on my own. Selected performances and exhibits include: Art in Odd Places; Blockchain Symposium at Creative Tech Week in Manhattan; Thomas Young Gallery, Boston; AREA Gallery, Cambridge; Ohio University Performance Festival, Athens, OH; AVA Gallery, Lebanon, NH; and, Skaftö Folkets Hus, Grundsund, Sweden. When the coronavirus came, I left New York City, and settled in the upper valley of New Hampshire. I plan to give my own workshops when things open up again.