LINNEA SKOGLÖSA
HYPER FLESH
21 SEP – 11 NOV 2023
Linnea Skoglösa’s installation HYPER FLESH at GLASSHOUSE elaborates upon the artist’s investigations into the compulsive pursuit of self-optimisation that lies at the core of technology-driven consumer culture. Skoglösa uses her distinctive visual language to explore the psychic effects of ‘hyper-wellness’, a sprawling set of practices that broadly share an algorithmic approach to physical and mental transformation. Within this trend towards militant self-regulation, ranging from pseudo-medical skincare regimens to a rigid ‘journalling’ schedule of forensically itemised goals and mantras, Skoglösa has identified a paranoid desire to escape the body and its inevitable fallibility; to become, instead, HYPER FLESH.
Using deconstructed fitness equipment, mechanical hardware, and components extracted from cars and furniture, Skoglösa creates sculptures that resemble exoskeletons, conjuring bodies locked into dopamine-driven feedback loops of physiological self-improvement. Through matte-black surfaces, levers, hints of ergonomic seating and taut elastic bands, Skoglösa co-opts the visual shorthand for streamlined functionality found in consumer products ranging from face massagers to Peloton bikes and Tesla interiors. The modular, reducible nature of the sculptures contrasts with Skoglösa’s paintings, which appear to emanate the sleek, viscous blackness of a dormant mobile phone. This impression of plasticine smoothness is belied by the erratic marks splattered and scratched across their surfaces, a materialisation of the frenetic anxiety that often thrums beneath our screens.



