Snövit Hedstierna
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Snövit Hedstierna | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mina Linda Snövit Hedstierna Stockholm, Sweden |
| Education | Concordia University |
| Known for | Visual Art, Performance Art |
| Website | http://www.snowwhite.se |
Snövit Hedstierna is an interdisciplinary artist, film director, art curator, art writer and university teacher. Her subject matters include power structures, gender issues, existential questions and intimacy.[1]
Snövit Hedstierna holds a Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and a degree from Valand Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden. She holds further formal qualifications in related fields such as photography, communication, and advertising.
Approach
Her work frequently includes and builds upon the lived experience of non-conforming individuals ("in the periphery"[2]), which she re-contexutalizes using established artistic frameworks such as film, photography, performance and dance. She seeks to transcend formal categories of artistic expression by creating experiential spaces that engage the audience in a variety of sensory and conceptional modalities, most notably intimate touch.
One of her most influential works, An issue of structure, incorporates extensive sociological research: over a period of 3 years, she conducted 250 in-depth interviews with female, queer, transgender and genderfluid individuals from all Nordic countries.[3]
Subject matters
Her work has focused on gender rights as a main topic since 2013, beginning with her graduation show from Valand Academy where she displayed the photo series Practices of Looking, and the related group performance Another View, which was considered controversial for its depictions of nudity.[4][5] Snövit Hedstierna has created several exhibitions where the audience has been invited to participate in different ways. One was her thesis show at Valand, To Give and To Hold, a 48 hours long durational performance where the artist offered her body as spoon for anyone in the audience saying "she rather spoon with someone than shoot someone" as a comment to the growing otherness in society.[6] During late September 2015 Snövit Hedstierna exhibited a one-on-one performance and installation in the "Dream a Dream" solo show at the Abteilung für Alles Andere. The artist described the exhibition as "A guided sleep meditation in an experimental and transcendental environment, now and forever."[7][8] During Manifesta11 in Zürich 2016, she performed the piece A source of Values in which the audience were invited to wash her naked body with a sponge, soap and water. She exhibited the video installation Sisterhood at the Pane Per Poveri pavilion at The Venice Biennale 2015 (La Biennale di Venezia).