Anna Uddenberg / Home Wreckers

Installation view at The Perimeter, London. Courtesy the artist and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin.

Unexpected experience that can alter your perception of reality and evoke a productive discomfort. Until the 22nd of December, it is possibile to visit “Home Wreckers”, the first solo exhibition by Anna Uddenberg at The Perimeter, in London.

Anna Uddenberg is a non-linear artist who has rapidly gained recognition across various realms due to her versatile creativity. Her vision carries a strong aesthetic and a significant message; she articulates her thoughts without filters, aiming to convey to the world that through art, viewed as a pseudo-transposition of reality, we can genuinely discern what is authentic from what is not.

Born in Stockholm, Anna Uddenberg, now lives and works between Germany and Sweden. She studied at Frankfurt Städelschule and Stockholm’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Her works have been showcased internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including at Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York (2023); Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2023); Centre Pompidou Metz (2023); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2022), and other major museums.

Coinciding with the exhibition at The Perimeter, you can also explore the Kunsthalle Mannheim for another experience celebrating Anna’s receipt of the Hector Art Prize in 2022. Due to the connection between these two exhibitions, a catalogue of Anna Uddenberg’s work up to the present day has been published.

The artist is in constant ferment, realising projects in different ways, and the one not to be missed now is ‘Home Wreckers’ in London.
This stimulates a reflection on the hyper-sexualisation of women. The exhibition brings together ten artworks created over the past seven years, carefully placed to form a cohesive nucleus with a profound visual effect. Every aspect, from the overall space to the smallest detail, contributes to this impact.
Besides the sculptures, a film, co-directed with Thyago Sainte, is played for the first time.

Women’s bodies in the exhibition resemble machines and robots adorned with exaggerated feminine details: extensions, ample body shapes, long nails, and stylish accessories like Balenciaga Crocs (a noteworthy detail, revealing the origin of three sculptures created for Balenciaga Crocs’ 2021 campaign).

The main concept is to put the viewer in front of a triggering vision where the hyper-exposure of women’s bodies is exaggerated. The ten sculptures, faceless, represent female figures in intricate poses related to themes of bondage, sexualization, and explicit vulgarity. These were chosen to help us understand how manipulated our society is. Every day we are extremely influenced by social media, and, out of our control, we are pushed to expose ourselves and our intimacy just to seek attention. Over the years, this mechanism has evolved into a toxic fetish, symbolising capitalism and commercialism.

Each body is meticulously crafted, with details so lifelike that one forgets they are observing handmade art, feeling as if they are truly witnessing a performance. The artist mixed multiple materials and tools, creating the most elaborate pieces: aqua resin, fibreglass, lime wood are just some of the thousand elements implicated.
Particular is CORPORATE GRAY / External Spine artwork, created in 2021, in which Anna used real human hairs and piercing accessories to make the result as realistic as possible.
Another one, much documented by the public, is CLIMBER (Pierced Rosebud), of 2020; here the figure is located on a whole kitchen worktop while she is scratching the fur shelf in a manner reminiscent of the sexual sphere.

The overview and the multiple concepts leave the visitor both uncomfortable and aware of the reality of the topics.

Particular aspect of the aesthetic is also that everything is built on multiple contrasts: the overall space evokes a sense of home and domesticity with sofas, design pieces, and comfortable materials. Simultaneously, the setting and media tools create a connection to a digital and futuristic world.

Anna Uddenberg is not afraid to make evident what is wrong in this world, what people need to reason about. She uses art and different disciplines to shake up our minds, a necessity especially in today’s context. If you are prepared to be put in front of reality with an unexpected yet magnetic experience, you really need to visit Home Wreckers and stay focused on the artist’s next projects.