I am so fucking happy.
Ongoing video project in Public Space

I am so fucking happy er et on going værk, der inkluderer nye kvinder, hver gang værket udstilles. Kvinderne bliver bedt om foran kameraet at sige ” I am so fucking happy”. Selve måden sætningen udtales og performes stiller spørgsmål af både sproglig, kulturel, feministisk og medierelateret art. Sammenstillingen af den sproglige artikulation og kvindernes mimik lader desuden beskueren fundere over forholdet mellem autenticitet og performance. Gentagtelsen af ytringen understreger det dobbelttydige eller uforløste i udsagnet. Er kvinderne nu i virkeligheden så lykkelige, som de siger de er?

"I am so fucking Happy" is an on going work – starting in 2002, that includes new women every time the work is exhibited. The women are asked in front of the camera to say "I am so fucking happy". The many statements are clipped together in a short, precise montage that dispenses his points as a gun shot. While some women deliver the statement with great enthusiasm and enthusiasm, others are expressionless and mechanical. The statement, as such, becomes an exterior and artificial construction, which is not based on any real feeling, but rather on a performative gesture.  

The very way the phrase is pronounced and performed raises questions of both linguistic, cultural, feminist and media-related nature. The repetition of the statement emphasizes the ambiguous or unresolved in the statement. Are the women now as happy as they say they are?

The juxtaposition of the linguistic articulation and the women's mimicry also allows the viewer to think about the relationship between authenticity and performance.

A number of passing women in a Danish city have been asked to say "so so fucking happy" to the camera. The many statements by Johnsen and Nielsen are clipped together in a short, precise montage that dispenses his points as a gun shot. While some women deliver the statement with great enthusiasm and enthusiasm, others are expressionless and mechanical. However, most finish their performance with a small smile and a nod to the camera to seemingly confirm whether they have done their job well enough.

The statement itself is ambiguous. In the positive announcement, a "fucking" has been added, which adds an ironic twist to the statement. The statement, as such, becomes an exterior and artificial construction, which is not based on any real feeling, but rather on a performative gesture - something that is played. Because the staging becomes so obvious with the repetition of the same phrase in the various women, the statement appears more like a hysterical and shifts the maintenance of an external image that pierces credibility.

The many short and bumpy clips bombard our eye with a hyperventilating and ongoing imagery that not only transcends the boundary between public and private, but also between authenticity and construction.