Interview with Arvida Byström

By Bjorn Stern

Arvida Byström, tell us about your artistic background and where you see your practice in the art world eco-system.

My artistic career started online. I‘ve posted my photographs online from an age of 12 and for some reason was always adamant on calling it art. This sort of led to myself and other people pushing me towards that direction and when I lived in London and then later Los Angeles I was in my early 20s always hanging out with people that were attending to or had gone to art school, so I usually say I‘ve gone to art school by proxy.

I think I am from and am occupying a digital photography, internet and the body sort of space in the art world which I very much enjoy and sometimes I am sincerely surprised that I am where I am since I am not from a family of artists or an abundance of wealth, hah.

The notion of ideal beauty has been with us since the beginning of story telling. How did you arrive at the works you are doing now with Harmony, the sex doll?

I am interested in putting the body into the digital. I have previously made some works on iPhones Siri where I for example have a video where she is reading a monologue about being a feminized digital entity. Siri often gets disembodied even though she has the body of millions of phones. Tech companies use words like „clouds“ to obscure the strain technology actually has on the environment.

So in the work with and research of Siri I stumbled upon the AI sex doll and thought it would be interesting to work with the digital woman on the other side of the spectrum - the truly embodied one. In the work with Harmony I have been thinking a lot about the human imagination - humans can create copies of human bodies in the form of sculptures, we create copies of human lives and minds through art forms like movies and books. Somehow we as a culture are terrified of these creations we make. What if we create books, movies or video games that make individuals stop wanting to live in „the real world“. What if we create a doll, a sculpture or just retouch our selfies in a way that no real living and moving human can be as beautiful?

The myth of Pygmalion from ancient Greece, a myth of a sculptor who sculpts a woman so beautiful he falls in love with her, is an excellent example of that this fear is not new but perhaps pathological to humans.

Is your work a response to recent philosophies of Posthumanism?

Do you believe in Posthumanism?

I see posthumanism more as a philosophy that discusses how technology shapes our minds and lives rather than something to believe in or not. Perhaps humans have always been a bit posthumanist. We have always used tools to help us do things more efficient. Writing has made our memories more accurate and have let us store and exchange information in a more efficient way. Cars have made us move faster. Phones are like an extension to our bodies and our brains. I do like how some posthumanist philosophers challenge humans to not center the world around ourselves but to invite robots and animals to be taken into the consideration of society and life as an equally important companion.

ARVIDA BYSTRÖM

The end of the world, 2022 Photographic print, 50 x 40 cm, 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in, 10 editions 2 ap, Courtesy of the artist

Your new series have works with titles such as Pietà and Origin of the World which are strong references to iconic works in art history. How would you describe your interest in this kind of commentary?

We are in a time of culture creation where it is so easy to create striking imagery. Due to this I think if you want to make imagery that lasts you need to have a story to it and put it into some kind of context. For me art history is exciting and always a way to play with previous relationships and see how things has changed - if it has changed. With Pietà I wanted to bring in the christian creation story of how god created human in the form of himself, just as humans create technology in the form of ourselves - visual or intellectual. Are we like gods in relationship to technology, or are we perhaps more like Mary - a long for the ride but with no real control.

Do you think the advent of AI will be part of art history in the future?

It is already a part of art history! Just a little short time to be called history perhaps. The conversation around AI art is very similar to the discussion of photography and its rise in society, so no doubt AI will slowly find a way to adjust and get a more stable position in the art world just like most new mediums. Also humans have an extraordinarily beautiful way of making art out of all the tools we create. Take the written word for example, it was most likely created to record things like sales and transactions, eventually people used this tool to write poetry and novels! Goes for photography, AI and any other tools humans have created. We can help but to try to make art out of anything. How sweet is that!

FRAUKE DANNERT