Duktig
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The meaning of the Swedish word “duktig” is a strange mix of being good at something and hardworking. Yet, “duktig flicka” holds a gendered and derogatory connotation similar to the phrasing “good girl” and its sexual dichotomy.
Saga’s artistic inquiry has been researching the aesthetics of the good girl in historical art and in mainstream contemporary pornography as well as the social expectations and norms that help to inform its aesthetics and ethics. She is interested in the stigmatization yet sexualization of women’s sexuality and the conflicting moral dichotomy of how social expectations and attitudes view innocent girls as “good” and sexual girls as “bad.”
A “good girl” is often perceived as innocent, naive, pure, modest, and compliant to rules by being obedient and pleasant. While a “bad girl” is seen as disagreeable, unpleasant, and disobedient of the rules and norms of society, by being naughty and mischievous. Saga has found that being a good girl has multiple definitions but views the good girl as a “bad girl that has never been caught” and as a disguise and strategy to hide one’s disobedience while secretly being mischievous and rebellious.
Hidden underneath the pastiche of consumer products, the installation uses language, objects, and digital elements to emphasize the sexual dichotomy of the good girl and the tension between ethics and aesthetics. Using words and objects that relate to the associations of the good girl and the boundaries between punishment and pleasure.
