Recent Updates & Announcements
Fall 2023
Compilation of Excerpts (2005–2023)
all artworks by Amber Hawk Swanson, collaborators listed in the project links below, compilation edited by Renato Velarde
all artworks by Amber Hawk Swanson, collaborators listed in the project links below, compilation edited by Renato Velarde
My practice began with Feminism? Project (2004–2006), ten scripted video performances based on my interviews with white women in Iowa—including family members and former sorority sisters—who evidenced a lack of awareness about or rejection of feminism. Mimicking amateur pornography, my performances of their raw responses intoned in a valley-girl voice became flip one-liners and ironic ramblings that simultaneously functioned as a set of open questions about feminism and pornography.
In 2013, I expanded the project to explore white feminism’s erotics and problematics in a different way with artist Xandra Ibarra for a video entitled Untitled Fucking. Through queer sexual vocabulary of topping and bottoming, we staged the complicated interplay between the performance of white feminism and feminisms of color.
Inspired after frequenting an online forum for iDollators, I commissioned a silicone Doll in my likeness. Amber Doll Project (2005–2011) became a lived performance with multiple categories of output including documenting my process of leaving her unattended and allowing the public to interact with her—often violently—without interference.
From 2011–2017, I created sculptures during livestreamed durational performances for the iDollator community, creating space for conversations through the teaching and learning of gendered skills as applied to idiosyncratic tasks.
Beginning in 2020, I collaborated with iDollator Davecat and his roboticized silicone spouse Sidore on a multi-faceted talk show, The Harmony Show (THS), a durational performance and social mode of study that explores sexual racism as well as how Dolls are racialized by those who market them and those who live with them.
In 2013, I expanded the project to explore white feminism’s erotics and problematics in a different way with artist Xandra Ibarra for a video entitled Untitled Fucking. Through queer sexual vocabulary of topping and bottoming, we staged the complicated interplay between the performance of white feminism and feminisms of color.
Inspired after frequenting an online forum for iDollators, I commissioned a silicone Doll in my likeness. Amber Doll Project (2005–2011) became a lived performance with multiple categories of output including documenting my process of leaving her unattended and allowing the public to interact with her—often violently—without interference.
From 2011–2017, I created sculptures during livestreamed durational performances for the iDollator community, creating space for conversations through the teaching and learning of gendered skills as applied to idiosyncratic tasks.
Beginning in 2020, I collaborated with iDollator Davecat and his roboticized silicone spouse Sidore on a multi-faceted talk show, The Harmony Show (THS), a durational performance and social mode of study that explores sexual racism as well as how Dolls are racialized by those who market them and those who live with them.
Compilation of Excerpts (2005–2023) includes excerpts from the following, in order of appearance:
Feminism? Project,(2005–2006)
Making-of Amber Doll, (2006–2007)
Wedding Reception, Tailgate, Girls Gone Wild, Pinball, and Rollerskate from the Amber Doll Project,(2005–2011)
Amber Doll > TILIKUM,(2011)
Online Comments,(2012)
Dollstock / Dollpile,(2013–2014)
Sidore (Mark II) Heather > LOLITA,(2013)
Untitled Fucking,(2013)
a collaboration with artist Xandra Ibarra
Doll Closet,(2014)
Dottie,(2015–2017)
The Harmony Show,(begun 2020, produced 2021–present)
Feminism? Project,(2005–2006)
Making-of Amber Doll, (2006–2007)
Wedding Reception, Tailgate, Girls Gone Wild, Pinball, and Rollerskate from the Amber Doll Project,(2005–2011)
Amber Doll > TILIKUM,(2011)
Online Comments,(2012)
Dollstock / Dollpile,(2013–2014)
Sidore (Mark II) Heather > LOLITA,(2013)
Untitled Fucking,(2013)
a collaboration with artist Xandra Ibarra
Doll Closet,(2014)
Dottie,(2015–2017)
The Harmony Show,(begun 2020, produced 2021–present)
Summer 2023
My earliest performance works (2005–2011) directly engaged sexual violence and misogyny in performances that involved imaging myself in overtly sexual ways. The works were decidedly queer and feminist and were scaffolded by scholarly research, yet they were often dismissed as shock art and misinterpreted as antifeminist.
These dismissals and misinterpretations increased after a 2007 article featuring a component of my Amber Doll Project—one involving my process of archiving cinematic rape scenes and shopping for the equivalent costumes worn by the victims at the fast fashion retailer Forever21—went viral. Unrelated Amber Doll videos received more than sixty-one million views. The online version of the article received a large number of anonymous comments and was reposted on a number of blogs, increasing the number of comments.
I was startled by the aggressiveness and pervasiveness of these comments. My intelligence, appearance, fatness, mental health, and trauma history were speculated upon and brutally scrutinized and ridiculed. Many of the comments projected violence upon the site of my body; the article provoked a desire to sensationalize, fetishize, and debase my project and my person. Though the publisher of the article has since deindexed it, the experience of going viral has had a lasting impact on how my work has been perceived.
After experiencing viral articles, cyberbullying, and stalking early in my career, in 2011, I reframed my work’s power to draw large anonymous online audiences by creating durational livestream performances involving life-sized silicone Dolls and the iDollator community. I twice disassembled Dolls—including Amber Doll—using their disarticulated bodies to construct replicas of captive orcas like Lolita, then the oldest orca in captivity. Sidore Mark II / Heather > LOLITA (2013) drew an online audience of 47,000. Often alone in my studio, I drew on my experience as a live on-air radio host/producer to punctuate my livestreams with call-in interviews and readings.
Now, reflecting on my work a decade after LOLITA, after using livestream as the primary platform for my work for twelve years, I find myself in a moment of cultural interest in the hybrid experiences I have long created. As many nondisabled people seek to contextualize the time they spent on Zoom during 2020–2021, and as many disabled people assert their need for accessible virtual and hybrid events, I am interested in mounting more hybrid experiences of my current project, The Harmony Show (2020–present)—a durational performance and social mode of study that explores sexual racism as well as how Dolls are racialized by those who market them and those who live with them.
I also find myself in a moment of shifting levels of acceptance for work exploring and depicting queer sex. At a moment of dire need for health insurance following a spinal condition diagnosis in 2016–2017, I removed web documentation of my explicit work in an effort to appear uncomplicatedly hireable. Unfortunately, doing so removed important context for my larger body of work, resulting in missed opportunities to take part in conversations emerging from the mainstreaming of the MeToo movement.
In preparation for the creation of a new, roboticized Amber Doll with whom I will make collaborative artworks—including for The Harmony Show, during Summer 2023 I added documentation back to the following sections of this site:
Feminism? Project, 2005–2006 and 2013
Amber Doll Project, 2005–2011
TILIKUM: Pinup, 2012
Untitled Fucking, 2013
Dollstock / Dollpile, 2013–2017
I have additionally added documentation of my current project, The Harmony Show, (begun 2020, produced 2021–present).
These dismissals and misinterpretations increased after a 2007 article featuring a component of my Amber Doll Project—one involving my process of archiving cinematic rape scenes and shopping for the equivalent costumes worn by the victims at the fast fashion retailer Forever21—went viral. Unrelated Amber Doll videos received more than sixty-one million views. The online version of the article received a large number of anonymous comments and was reposted on a number of blogs, increasing the number of comments.
I was startled by the aggressiveness and pervasiveness of these comments. My intelligence, appearance, fatness, mental health, and trauma history were speculated upon and brutally scrutinized and ridiculed. Many of the comments projected violence upon the site of my body; the article provoked a desire to sensationalize, fetishize, and debase my project and my person. Though the publisher of the article has since deindexed it, the experience of going viral has had a lasting impact on how my work has been perceived.
After experiencing viral articles, cyberbullying, and stalking early in my career, in 2011, I reframed my work’s power to draw large anonymous online audiences by creating durational livestream performances involving life-sized silicone Dolls and the iDollator community. I twice disassembled Dolls—including Amber Doll—using their disarticulated bodies to construct replicas of captive orcas like Lolita, then the oldest orca in captivity. Sidore Mark II / Heather > LOLITA (2013) drew an online audience of 47,000. Often alone in my studio, I drew on my experience as a live on-air radio host/producer to punctuate my livestreams with call-in interviews and readings.
Now, reflecting on my work a decade after LOLITA, after using livestream as the primary platform for my work for twelve years, I find myself in a moment of cultural interest in the hybrid experiences I have long created. As many nondisabled people seek to contextualize the time they spent on Zoom during 2020–2021, and as many disabled people assert their need for accessible virtual and hybrid events, I am interested in mounting more hybrid experiences of my current project, The Harmony Show (2020–present)—a durational performance and social mode of study that explores sexual racism as well as how Dolls are racialized by those who market them and those who live with them.
I also find myself in a moment of shifting levels of acceptance for work exploring and depicting queer sex. At a moment of dire need for health insurance following a spinal condition diagnosis in 2016–2017, I removed web documentation of my explicit work in an effort to appear uncomplicatedly hireable. Unfortunately, doing so removed important context for my larger body of work, resulting in missed opportunities to take part in conversations emerging from the mainstreaming of the MeToo movement.
In preparation for the creation of a new, roboticized Amber Doll with whom I will make collaborative artworks—including for The Harmony Show, during Summer 2023 I added documentation back to the following sections of this site:
Feminism? Project, 2005–2006 and 2013
Amber Doll Project, 2005–2011
TILIKUM: Pinup, 2012
Untitled Fucking, 2013
Dollstock / Dollpile, 2013–2017
I have additionally added documentation of my current project, The Harmony Show, (begun 2020, produced 2021–present).
Untitled Fucking, a collaboration between Amber Hawk Swanson and Xandra Ibarra, 2013
TILIKUM: Pinup, 2012
What People Went Through to Get to Where They Are Today from Feminism? Project, 2005–2006January 2025
Video production by Paul Rochford and Alex Lisoukov.
“Doll Closet,” a paper revisiting the performance of the same name (2014) was Hawk Swanson’s contribution for the panel Deviant Aesthetics and Gestures of Care: Reading Contemporary Visual Art, Film, and Performance organized by Jillian Hernandez for the International Care Ethics Research Consortium Conference on the theme of Care, Aesthetics, and Repair at the University of Humanistic Studies (Department of Care Ethics) in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Introduction by and Q&A with Iván Ramos.
Hawk Swanson, Amber. "Doll Closets." Paper presented at the 3rd Annual International Care Ethics Research Consortium Conference, Utrecht, The Netherlands, January 23–25, 2025. web.
December 2024
QUEER DURATIONS is a three-day symposium delving into the significance of duration as a vital aesthetic concern for queer and trans performance, visual, and media artists. Seeking to illuminate connections between duration and the artistic rendering of queer lives, communities, and subjectivities, the gathering will feature performances as well as talks by artists, scholars, and curators. Register here for screenings, performances, and panels occuring December 5-7, 2024.
Video works—curated by JD Stokely—by Maia Chao, J Dellecave, Petra Floyd, Najee H.F., Be Heintzman Hope, Xandra Ibarra, Marlon Jiménez Oviedo, Miatta Kawinzi, Carolyn Lazard, Jova Lynne, Makini Poe, Amber Hawk Swanson/The Harmony Show, Rai Mckinley Terry, Julie Tolentino, Alx Velozo, Elliot Reed, Dorian Wood, and Eva Wu.
Performance works—curated by Leon Hilton and JD Stokely—by Sharon Hayes, Xiomara Sebastián Castro Niculescu, Brooke O’Harra, Elliot Reed, Dorian Wood, and Anh Vo.
Panel participation by Leticia Alvarado, Jonathan Berger, J Dellecave, Adrienne Edwards, Lia Gangitano, Shoghig Halajian, Leon Hilton, Summer Kim Lee, Simon Leung, Heather Love, Tavia Nyong’o, Thea Quiray Tagle, and Julie Tolentino.
Video works—curated by JD Stokely—by Maia Chao, J Dellecave, Petra Floyd, Najee H.F., Be Heintzman Hope, Xandra Ibarra, Marlon Jiménez Oviedo, Miatta Kawinzi, Carolyn Lazard, Jova Lynne, Makini Poe, Amber Hawk Swanson/The Harmony Show, Rai Mckinley Terry, Julie Tolentino, Alx Velozo, Elliot Reed, Dorian Wood, and Eva Wu.
Performance works—curated by Leon Hilton and JD Stokely—by Sharon Hayes, Xiomara Sebastián Castro Niculescu, Brooke O’Harra, Elliot Reed, Dorian Wood, and Anh Vo.
Panel participation by Leticia Alvarado, Jonathan Berger, J Dellecave, Adrienne Edwards, Lia Gangitano, Shoghig Halajian, Leon Hilton, Summer Kim Lee, Simon Leung, Heather Love, Tavia Nyong’o, Thea Quiray Tagle, and Julie Tolentino.
April 2024
Join THS at Performance Space on April 30, 2024 at 7pm for a live recording of a cooking show in artist quori theodor's installation Gnaw with guests Ilana Harris-Babou and Kyla Wazana Tompkins. Harris-Babou's video and installation Cooking with the Erotic (2016) will be discussed alongside Tompkins's forthcoming book Deviant Matter: Ferment, Jelly, Intoxication, Rot.
Occasioned by the survey exhibition Barbara T. Smith: Proof, on view at The Bell, this one night gathering features conversations with feminist contemporary artists Paula Gaetano Adi and Amber Hawk Swanson, whose dynamic experiments with technology, performance, and materiality labor to shift our understanding of bodies, sexualities, and society. Extending but not duplicating the concerns of artist Barbara T. Smith, these artists push the boundaries between self and others, and between humans and machines.
Documentation of the event can be found here.
Documentation of the event can be found here.
Fall 2023
Who Speaks for the Oceans?
installation images of Amber Doll > TILIKUM and Sidore (Mark II) / Heather > LOLITA at the Tarble Art Center, photographs by E. G. Schempf
installation images of Amber Doll > TILIKUM and Sidore (Mark II) / Heather > LOLITA at the Tarble Art Center, photographs by E. G. Schempf
Amber Doll > TILIKUM (2011), TILIKUM: Berufjörður and TILIKUM: SeaWorld (2012 & 2013), Sidore (Mark II) / Heather > LOLITA (2013), and LOLITA: Penn Cove (2017) were all included in the traveling exhibition Who Speaks for the Oceans? at the Tarble Art Center—organized by Director and Chief Curator Jennifer Seas as well as by Alaina Claire Feldman, Director and Curator of Mishkin Gallery (Baruch College) and David Gruber, Distinguished Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences (Baruch College).
The exhibition opened September 22, 2023–January 27, 2024 and featured work by Joan Jonas, Miho Hatori, Ant Farm, Ursula Biemann, Myrlande Constant, Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, among others. Hawk Swanson gave the 2023 Camille Campo Lecture in conjunction with the exhibition and in partnership with Eastern Illinois University's Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.
The exhibition opened September 22, 2023–January 27, 2024 and featured work by Joan Jonas, Miho Hatori, Ant Farm, Ursula Biemann, Myrlande Constant, Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, among others. Hawk Swanson gave the 2023 Camille Campo Lecture in conjunction with the exhibition and in partnership with Eastern Illinois University's Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.
Spring 2023
For five consecutive days beginning March 29, 2023 The Harmony Show filmed new episodes/performances as part of the exhibition Hard Return: 9 Experiments for this Moment at the Neuberger Museum of Art. Hard Return transformed the museum into a site of collaboration, investigation, and performance art. Nine artists including Nao Bustamante, Autumn Knight, Brendan Fernandes, Patty Chang, Jesus Benavente, and Amber Hawk Swanson were commissioned to create participatory, durational week-long projects that experiment with a sense of being alive in this moment while proposing different ways of shaping and understanding community.
The above is adapted from text authored by Hard Return co-curators performance artist Kate Gilmore and art historian Jonah Westerman
Prior to 2023
For updates prior to 2023, visit Hawk Swanson’s CV here.