Katarina Rose ‘Alias 2013 – 2020’
A hyper- normal backdrop spawns fake saints and bad seeds
Walk slowly in your wonder…sleep naked, talk to trees
In 2013 I created an alias ‘Katarina Rose’ and I began working under my two names with two distinctly different bodies of work. I exhibited in two ‘joint’ shows as both Rose and Lindqvist before deciding to concentrate primarily on the Katarina Rose work. The birth of this alias offered me artistic freedom and also reflected a return to the early art practices I had enjoyed as a student. It felt like a more authentic direction and greater reflected my ideas at this time. She also represented a more courageous and experimental figure for me and came at a time of great personal change.
I created dioramas with found objects, taxidermy, painted and sculpted forms, and often included stories or poems. I experimented with light and sound and received Arts Council Funding to take this work out of the gallery setting and into the realm of ‘Public Art’. This culminated in a 6-piece art trail called ‘Strangers’ for b-side festival in 2016.
I also created an imaginary alternative world called ‘The Field’ that is home to 26 anthropomorphic taxidermy animals each with their own fictional life and box art diorama. Their characters are based on my observations of human behaviour and the strange stories we like to tell. This work is permanently on display at The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, London.
My work under Katarina Rose looked at social structures, organised religion, gender based prejudices, the use of humour, heroism, archetypes, idealism, and the layers of human deception that often mask the greater truths. I exhibited extensively under this alias and most notably within the curated show at the RWA ‘Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter.’