THEY MADE A MEME OUT OF MY LEGACY

11 - 28 Aug 2021

Henrik Haukeland

They Made a Meme Out of My Legacy is an exhibition that explores the possibilities of cloning, as seen through the lens of Barbra Streisand’s choice to clone her dog. The story is told through a variety of mediums, including hand-sewn textiles made of blankets and bed covers—materials that embody the domestic and echo the familiarity of the household pet.

The project raises questions of ethics and accessibility, as connected to the responsibility and influence of celebrities. What is a clone, and what are the pros and cons of cloning? Is the cloning of pets a step on the way towards cloning humans, and could Streisand’s example be part of the normalisation of cloning in society? 

Cloning evokes problems concerning uniqueness and individuality, and exposes us to the uncanniness of copies. The exhibition approaches these subjects via the specificities of Streisand’s case, anchoring it to one individual’s perspective.

Once upon a time, cloning was science fiction; today, it is simply science. The question is, what do we do with this knowledge? We know what Barbra Streisand did. She cloned her dog. She cloned her dog, and may have, in the process, made a meme out of her legacy.

Henrik Haukeland, born 1980, is a recent MFA graduate from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts in Sweden. Previous studies include the University of Bergen, Faculty of Fine Arts, in Norway, and the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR, U.S. Conceptually, he often deals with the body — both physical and social — as well as the corresponding ideas of consumption, excess, and transformation. He works with a wide range of different mediums, with textiles having become a particularly prominent part of his work in recent years.

IMAGE | Henrik Haukeland, They Made a Meme Out of My Legacy , 2020 | Courtesy the artist.