The real beauty
Published: 24th May 2008

KRISTIANSTAD ART

Theresia Lynch has written a novel and belonged to the fashion world. Now she is seeking her way into the art world, and directs the focus on the female body. Today she opens her exhibition at Plan3.

With capital letters in the middle of the picture, it reads Confidence is Beautiful. For Theresia Lynch, this is beauty; Trust. Self respect. Belief in the self. Trust who you are. Dare to be the one you want to be. You're good enough.

For a person who lived many years in the fashion industry, this is not obvious. Where the opposite rules. Where you're never good enough as you are. Theresia Lynch knows.

– I have been both a model and fashion photographer, but have withdrawn from that scene. I hate objectification of women. No one is perfect, despite that many continuously try to be perfect. This impossible hunt for an unattainable ideal is ghastly and utterly depressing. And it's not getting any better, on the contrary, today it's down on a nursery school level.

Why do we have this hysterical hunt after superficial role models? Who makes these decisions? Theresia Lynch has no concrete answers, but sees her art as a method to understand and explore this matter. She is sure however, that we are heading in the wrong direction.

– We are trivialising our existence by looking at ourselves as objects. I myself have been a part of all this, and am still manipulated, but I'm trying to break away. I think we should focus on doing something real and substantial with our lives instead.

In two rooms on Plan3 shows her photo-art, all images are digitally processed and most of them collage-like, where her own life is morphed with reality, fashion and media.

The first room is concentrated around cities and the outer life, while the inner room is just that - a place exploration of the internal. Here the perception of the female is dissected, our relationships and inner thoughts. With her self in one of the roles.

Theresia Lynch is from Solna, but have been living in London for many years (which has made its mark in the language, and she apologises when she doesn't find the correct words in Swedish).

– When I was a fashion photographer, I did quite extreme things, but were not always able to get my ideas across and the need to leave the fashion industry grew ever stronger. Sure, there were fast - and rather large amounts of - money in that industry, but money doesn't mean very much to me. The most important thing is to be able and allowed to express myself the way I want, both in words and pictures.

FACTS
THERESIA LYNCH

Born: Solna
Lives: London
Education: Central Saint Martins (London) Author: "Skärvor av mig" (2000) and "Spillage Journal" (2006).
The name: "Occasionally people ask, but no, David is not my father."

Sune Johannesson
kultur@kristianstadbladet.se