ELLINOR ÅSLUND
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Nina watches me
2021. Ceramic sculpture and videoloop on ipad, 8 min
A ceramic sculpture of the assassin Nina from the video game ”Tekken” has sat down to quite nonchalantly watch a video in which I make her karate moves while pregnant.
When I was pregnant I felt a constant frustration and anger. I felt that my body, identity and whole existence, was under attack from both inside and outside, both bodily and culturally. Moreover, I could not find any depictions of a pregnant body that I felt empowered identifying with. For some reason pregnant women are often pictured as passive, tenderly contemplating, and strangely as a kind of anti-subject, an abject, a vessel. I felt like I always had to fight off the whole world that I was going to put this new human being residing in my belly into.
A fictional character that has always made me feel happy and in control over my subjectivity and that moreover is a package of explosively active femininity is Nina. Nina and I have always been an unbeatable combination in Tekken. It felt like a relief to think of becoming Nina. I wondered how she would experience being pregnant. And I also wondered what she would think if she could see me. So I made her watch me, like a nonchalant guardian angel. I don’t think she’s very impressed by my karate, but I think she understands.
The catalogue
Watch the video that Nina watches here. For some reason youtube finds it not suitable for people under 18 so you have to be logged in.