24.9.–18.10.2026

Huuto I

My exhibition is a collection of reconstructed and imagined Annie Oakley objects. Together, the objects form a sort of museum collection – my own imagined version of Annie Oakley’s estate.

Annie Oakley (1860–1926) was a legendary American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. She toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and became one of the first internationally renowned female show performers. Her skills were admired and marveled at in her time, and attention was also drawn to her short stature, feminine clothing, and the way she presented herself as a lady. Annie Oakley came from a poor background and was a self-taught shooter who built a career in a male-dominated field during the Victorian era, when women were expected to stay at home. Annie Oakley’s story brings together many fascinating combinations, but also contradictions and opposites. She represented traditional feminine values through her clothing, her touring tent was neat and decorated to create a homely atmosphere, and she behaved as a woman was expected to behave, while working in a masculine field surrounded by men. She was also a more skilled shooter than most of her male colleagues. She encouraged women to acquire guns and take part in sports and proposed that female sharpshooters should be included in national defense, while at the same time she did not support the radical women’s rights movement. Annie Oakley was constantly in the public eye during her lifetime, and newspapers continued to publish stories about her even after her death. Different versions of her and her story were created through films, musicals, television series and books, and through these representations she continued to live on as a mythical figure.

The works in the exhibition were inspired by Annie Oakley’s life story. Annie Oakley is said to have sewn her own costumes, and she had an extensive collection of guns. I have created my own versions of her costumes, her touring tent and its interior, as well as her gun collection and images published of her. I have used materials traditionally associated with women’s domestic chores: recycled household textiles, reused fabrics, dough, soap, porcelain objects and ceramics, using a variety of craft techniques. Alongside the subject of the exhibition, the works explore public image, the creation of myths and fantasies, conventionality, and the aesthetics associated with the home and with both masculine and feminine worlds and how the aesthetics are presented. Through the works, I also want to highlight different and contradictory values and how they can appear in a different light when time or circumstances change, and how traditional gender-based prejudices still impact us today. The works also involve experimentation and play with materials.

Thank you
The Finnish Arts and Culture Agency

Contact details
lindagranfors.crevado.com