Audrey Wollen (born 1992, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, CA) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

. Wollen's prose and essays gained traction on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

platforms like Tumblr as she developed the idea of "Sad Girl Theory. Wollen has written for publications including ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', and ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

''. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, the Barischer Kunstverein, and Steve Turner Gallery. She lives and works in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Early life and education

Wollen was born and raised in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Her mother is writer and artist

Leslie Dick Leslie Dick (born 1954) is an American artist, writer, editor, and educator, based in Los Angeles. Her work explores feminist themes, especially in relation to queer theory and Lacanian discourse. Dick has published two novels, a collection of sh ...

and her father is film theorist and filmmaker

Peter Wollen Peter Wollen (29 June 1938 – 17 December 2019) was a Film theory, film theorist and filmmaker. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both Political journalism, political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the ...

. Wollen graduated with a BFA from CalArts in 2015 and is working on a PhD at

The Graduate Center, CUNY The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

Writing and art

Wollen has reviewed books by novelists such as Anne Carson,

Kate Zambreno Kate Zambreno (born December 30, 1977) is an American novelist, essayist, critic, and professor. She teaches writing in the graduate nonfiction program at Columbia University and at Sarah Lawrence College. Zambreno is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in ...

, and

Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890 – September 18, 1980) was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel ''Ship of Fools'' was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her sho ...

and has covered artists Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, Amalia Ulman, Richard Prince, Lana del Rey, and

Alina Szapocznikow Alina Szapocznikow (; May 16, 1926 – March 2, 1973) was a Polish sculptor and Holocaust survivor. She produced casts of her and her son's body. She worked mainly in bronze and stone and her provocative work recalled genres such as surrealism, nou ...

. In 2018, Wollen and Leslie Dick organized a window installation of books, according to her biographer Jason McBride, that influenced writer and poet

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, playwright, essayist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with themes such as childhood trau ...

. Books include ones she reproduced, rewrote, appropriated, and "pirated" into her own texts from her various apartments in New York,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. This was in conjunction with ''Focus on Kathy Acker'', an East Village Series at Performance Space New York. In 2021, Wollen wrote a passage on the late artist

Kaari Upson Kaari Upson (April 22, 1970 – August 18, 2021) was an American artist. The bulk of Upson’s career was devoted to a single series titled ''The Larry Project'' – paintings, installations, performances, and films inspired by a collection of on ...

, whom Wollen worked for as a studio archivist.

Sad Girl Theory

Wollen's Sad Girl Theory began as a research project that looked at the cultural trope of the suicidal woman. Sad Girl Theory articulates that the suffering woman is a political agent whose refusal to make amends with her sadness and suffering is an act of revolt. Thus, Sad Girl Theory proposes routine female sadness and bodily stress as a general state of social/political opposition. Sad Girl Theory is based on the notion that a women's sadness and its saturation on the body might be an active, autonomous, and articulate form of resistance. Sad Girl Theory can be considered an academic response to the liberal and neoliberal feminist ideal that views women as the makers of their own success. Sad Girl Theory provided inspiration for artist and writer Johanna Hedva's Sick Woman Theory, a project focused on chronic illness as an embodied form of political protest. Hedva claims, in response to Wollen's work, that she "was mainly concerned with the question of what happens to the sad girl who is poor, queer, and/or not white when, if, she grows up."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wollen, Audrey 1992 births Living people California Institute of the Arts alumni Feminist theorists Feminist artists American women critics Social media influencers Writers from Los Angeles 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women writers