Estrid Åkermark’s Hyperreality Explores Fame, Luxury and Power

March 22, 2021 5:45 pm Published by Very Famous

If it hits just right, art floats above the current moment as a cogent, fluorescent statement about the past, present and future. Stockholm artist Estrid Åkermark provides that kind of map, a commentary on power, beauty, celebrity and identity via sculpture both physical and digital. For her BFA show, she created the environment of an imaginary press conference where the minimalism of Swedish courtrooms mixed with hot-pink-and-orange symbols of luxurious power, like a Barbie-dollhouse Range Rover key.

Very Famous came across her work after discovering the digital art collective SENSERGY. For their SS20 London Fashion Week show with cyber-rave label Sinead Gorey, Estrid’s model avatars showed what a new fashion world could look like with virtual reality and 3D scanning. Her avatars were uncanny-valley hot girls from another dimension, one that’s similar but — as hyperrealities tend to go — cooler than ours.

Today, we enter the Very Famous World of Estrid Åkermark…

I think Very Famous first started following you about two years ago, and some of your first works we remember seeing and loving were your avatars. For your first solo exhibition “Action Girl,” you described it as being a journey of futurist aesthetics that pushed you to explain what the future means to yourself and others. Two years later, what is the future feeling like to you right now?

Avatars are still very important to me. They represent the essence of humans but are not quite that. They’re an imitation, or reincarnation, of the human. I think the topics I’ve researched are still very much relevant. I have been very social-media positive, but I do feel that the climate is getting more extreme with the years. I can barely find any major mainstream influencer my age in Sweden or internationally that has not done fillers or plastic surgery.

When looking at Kylie’s friend group nowadays, I see that they all go to the same doctor and have morphed into one look. We’re more or less the same age, we went through the awkward puberty-stage look, 2012 Tumblr free-spirit phase, etc, but now in 2021, she is another person looks-wise and I’m not. It’s not her fault, she’s a product of her time, but I do wonder how many girls are thinking that they also need to change their appearance. At the same time, there is a more diverse group of appearances becoming prevalent in the media now, so it’s a double-edged sword sometimes.

Are you feeling optimistic about technology, and are thoughts of our relationship with technology and of the future still inspiring your work?

I am always feeling optimistic about technology. The art world especially can be so conservative when it comes to the digital and technology, but I truly believe we can make remarkable things with it. I imagined there would be more new technology related to tracking and fighting Covid, but maybe they just haven’t had enough time.

Congratulations on your BFA exhibition Legend! Instagram tells me there was a gorgeous-glam throne, a Range Rover key, a mic stand, a pink robe – what is the inspiration behind the show? How did the hot-pink-and-orange palette come about?

Thank you! The inspiration comes from power and authority, and centers around a press conference, indicating that something major will happen, is happening, or has happened. Fortunately I was showing in a large space, so there was room as an observer to stand behind the speaker’s chair and outside it, feeling both being the legend and the audience. I’ve looked at public institutions such as courtrooms and government buildings. Courtrooms in Sweden are often minimal, not much showing off when it comes to materials and art. The plywood is a nod to Scandinavian minimalism.

I love hot-pink and orange together, I can’t help it! It was a challenge for me to combine minimalism with strong colors, since neon is often associated with kitsch and over-the-top bad taste. I wanted to combine the two; Donald Judd and Sol Lewitt have done colorful minimalism, for example. I’ve heard that neon is going out of style now, I might as well use it while I can!

You make art using all kinds of mediums in the physical and digital worlds. What are some themes you feel are connecting threads throughout your work?

I guess that, going for a BFA among old people with multiple academic degrees, I feel very aware that I’m still a girl in my early 20’s who hasn’t gotten rid of my non-intellectual interests. Mixed with the connection to pop culture, I tend to cover the topics that have arisen from things happening naturally in my life. Anger, grief, mental health struggles, drama, and maturing. However, it most often comes down to my inner struggles. When I began my studies, I was a 20-year-old taking way too much shit from people around me and bottling it up, causing me to crash mentally, to three years later being aware of my self worth. At least a bit more.

What things/ideas/people are exciting you right now?

I’m really getting into 3D printing right now. It’s a new craft to master just like with anything else but so much fun with endless possibilities. I’m also watching a lot of fashion runway shows on YouTube, probably everyday lol. I’m trying to develop building scenes and installations, which runway shows are very good examples of.