Arvida Bystrom Wants to Reinvent What We're Longing For

"As a teenager, I was physically close to nature but my life felt very digital. Now I only work digitally because I've done it for so long, but I don't spend time in that space when I'm not working. I try to be in nature with my dog, go to a lake to clear my mind. My favourite is Trehörningen in Hanveden, south of Stockholm. It's inside a nature reserve, tiny and still, with lots of tadpoles. These lakes have often featured in Swedish art."

"During the Covid-19 pandemic, I took photos inspired by it, self-portraits where Nordic folklore creatures met digital themes. I was thinking about the influencer as a kind of fairy. She's real but not real, based in reality but mythical - her image gets warped or it's hard to understand. A lot of American artists' work right now is rooted in Americana aesthetics - I'm drawn to the northern European kind. I want to reinvent what we're longing for."

"After moving to London in 2012, and later LA, she became known for dealing with subject matter such as censorship, disobedient bodies and the sexualisation of women online. Last year, for her project In the Clouds, she created artificial nudes of herself and sold them in an interactive digital piece that also allowed users to converse with a bot trained on her interviews."

Arvida Byström grew up physically close to nature while living a digital life as a teenager. She photographs nature and creates self-portraits that blend Nordic folklore with digital themes. She moved to London in 2012 and later to LA, making work about censorship, disobedient bodies and online sexualisation. She produced In the Clouds, where artificial nudes of herself were sold and accompanied by a chatbot trained on her interviews. She frames the influencer as a fairy figure—real yet mythical—and seeks to reframe Northern European longing. Her film PET continues explorations of AI as pet, therapist and relationship counsellor.

Read at AnOther