ALMA

2009-present

Alma began as a material intervention (created in 2009) and mutated into a networked system, exceeding control and crystallizing as a new global archetype. 

Alma is a rogue taxidermy sculpture that interrogates the cultural construction of female autonomy, hybridity, and sexuality through processes of worship, demonization, and myth-making. Composed of human hair, animal remains, and found materials, the figure exists as a speculative body assembled from fragments of the human and more-than-human. Initially encountered in gallery contexts such as the Beaverbook Provincial Art Gallery, Alma exceeded its material form and entered digital circulation, where it proliferated wildly and unpredictably online.

In 2012, after being anonymously installed on a cliff edge, the work went viral after being discovered and posted on Reddit by user, Bender420. The post generated over six million views within three days and reached the top post on the front page of Reddit. During this process, online audiences collectively renamed the figure “Hoof Hand,” transforming it into a distributed, participatory identity that inspired fan art and indie album covers. The story emerged again on Reddit in 2015.

Through this expansion, Alma shifted from object to networked system. Its meaning became no longer fixed within the sculptural form but produced through wild circulation, projection, and collective authorship. From this proliferation, Alma continues to live as an emergent archetype generated through the feedback loops of cyber culture.

Originally conceived by the artist as a contemporary reimagining of Oskar Kokoschka's fur doll proxy, created by Hermine Moos in the likeness of his unrequited love, Alma Mahler, Alma showcases how bodies are culturally animated, fragmented, and reconstituted through processes of uncontrolled encounter. The wildish form of the piece, Alma, was also inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's poem, "Tête de faune" (Head of a Faun), 1871. The work was developed during a funded artist residency with the Fredericton Arts Alliance.

Visit the archived Reddit post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/xckgb/creepy_woman_statue_in_my_town_made_of_various/

The the linked Imgur post has since been deleted.

Materials: Human hair, found wig, recycled Persian lamb coat, beaver fur, rabbit fur, mink fur, raffia, goat skin, acrylic paint, gold leaf, beeswax, deer hoof, moose teeth, taxidermy epoxy putty, found vintage mannequin
Dimensions: 69 × 33 × 24 inches (and web-based iterations)