Flash Art Cover Project

In 1991, four Scandinavian artists – Susan Hinnum, Ann Lislegaard, Eva Larsson and Christine Melchiors – created the character Bob Smith: a fictitious international curator with a name common enough to make their deception difficult to uncover. Bob Smith pretended to represent and promote the four artists. Through him, the women artists established the male recognition they needed to be taken seriously on a maledominated art scene. The work Flash Art Cover Project consists of modified copies of the international art magazine Flash Art. The group has put themselves on the cover, posing in wedding dresses. Only when you flip through the glossy pages of the magazine is it revealed as a fake. The magazine is a modification of a previous work from 1993 – an ad featuring the same fake Flash Art cover printed in the art magazine Beckerell. The group’s fake news stratagem worked: their works became featured in major exhibitions and museums. Today, the group’s successful strategy of resisting existing norms testifies to the various tricks and ruses you may need to resort to when the systems are not made for you (50 Favorites in the SMK Collection).