Karin Signhild Hermansson (born 7 August 1981), better known as Kakan Hermansson, is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

television presenter, radio host, comedian and artist. She has had her own television show on

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

(SVT) called ''Kaka på Kaka'' and has worked on shows for both

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...

and

TV4 TV4 or TV 4 may refer to: *TV4 (Poland), a private Polish television station *TV4 (Sweden), a Swedish television network **TV4 Group, owners of the Swedish television station *South African Broadcasting Corporation TV4, a channel operated by the st ...

. A graduate of the Stockholm art academy

Konstfack Konstfack, or University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden. History Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the e ...

, she works with a feminist art collective and has exhibited her (mostly ceramic) art in various places. She calls herself a

radical feminist Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a Political radicalism, radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are al ...

Career

Television

Kakan Hermansson was first featured in the comedy show ''Locash'', first broadcast on the Swedish ZTV television network in 2008. She played a " hip hop-

slacker A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic. Origin According to different sources, the term ''slacker'' dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early t ...

" version of herself for three seasons. Along with Swedish model and musician Julia Frej, she started making comedy music videos under the name "Kakan och Julia". The videos appeared on the SVT show ''SVT Humor'' in 2010. Due to the popularity of their videos, SVT offered them their own television show, ''Kaka på Kaka'', which continued for two seasons. The show mixed comedy and serious interviews with a variety of celebrities. Hermansson was an assistant to

Pär Lernström Pär Hugo Gustav Lernström, born 4 September 1980, is a Swedish television presenter, perhaps best known for presenting the Swedish Idol series on TV4. He has worked for SR Stockholm, Utbildningsradion, MTV:s morningshow "Mycket mer än müsli" ...

on the radio programme ''PP3'' at

. In 2013, Hermansson was a travelling reporter for the

show ''Veckans Svensk'' on which Lernström was the presenter, and was also his assistant on TV4's ''

Idol 2013 ''Idol 2013'' was the Swedish '' Idol'' series' ninth season which premiered on August 19, 2013. and ended on December 6, 2013. In January 2013, TV4 confirmed that the ''Idol'' series would be returning after a year's hiatus after ''Idol 2011''. ...

''.

Radio

In early June 2014, Hermansson was announced as one of the "Summer Talkers" (Swedish:''Sommarpratarna'') for the popular Sveriges Radio P1 show ''

Sommar i P1 ''Sommar i P1'' (''Summer on P1'') is one of the most popular shows on Swedish radio. It has been broadcast every summer since 29June 1959, originally as ''Sommar'' on P3 and since 1993 on P1. About Each 90-minute-long programme in the series ...

''. Hermansson criticised the lack of

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

in Sveriges Radio's selection of hosts for the show, saying "It makes me terribly angry to see how very white we are sitting here. We do not represent Sweden," referring to those attending the press conference for the show. Hermansson also said that she was shocked at how "Swedish" the whole event was. Journalist

Mustafa Can Mustafa Can (born October 15, 1969 in Obuzbaşı, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Wes ...

criticised Hermansson's comments in an article in the ''

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

'' newspaper.

Art

As an artist, Hermansson's works express ideas about gender, class, and sexuality. She graduated from

, a Swedish

university college In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

of art, crafts, and design, and among other projects arranged a

nail art Nail art is a creative way to paint, decorate, enhance, and embellish nails. It is a type of artwork that can be done on fingernails and toenails, usually after manicures or pedicures. Manicures and pedicures are beauty treatments that trim, s ...

convention as part of her work toward her degree. She works mostly with

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

, and has had exhibitions at

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

's NAU Gallery and Gustavsberg's arthall. Hermansson is one of six members of the feminist art collective ''Den nya kvinnogruppen'' (The New Women's Group) which was created in early 2013 in reaction to the dominance by male artists of the Swedish art scene. Hermansson is a lesbian and identifies as a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

. On 28 May 2014, Hermansson held an art exhibition during the "West Pride", an

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

festival in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

. Hermansson held an exhibition at a museum run by

Kristianstad Kristianstad (, ; older spelling from Danish language, Danish ''Christianstad'') is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 40,145 inhabitants in 2016. During the last 15 years, it has ...

council shortly after having been sacked from the Audi Q2 marketing campaign. The Facebook page comment section closed due to the high number of critical posts and police protection was provided for the exhibition.

Controversy

In 2012, Hermansson expressed controversial comments about

Swedish police The Swedish Police Authority ( sv, Polismyndigheten) is the national police force (''Polisen'') of the Kingdom of Sweden. The first modern police force in Sweden was established in the mid-19th century, and the police remained in effect under lo ...

and men in general on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. When she was hired in 2016 for a campaign by a marketing firm to take part in designing a version of the

Audi Q2 The Audi Q2 is a subcompact luxury crossover SUV developed and manufactured by Audi. It was first unveiled to the public on 1 March 2016 at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show and built on Volkswagen Group's MQB A1 platform as the Mk7 series Volkswagen ...

, Audi customers protested in social media against her participation, citing her inflammatory views. Audi chose to end the collaboration and apologised. Shortly after having been sacked from the Audi marketing campaign, she publicly apologised to all police officers in Sweden for her inflammatory comments four years earlier, using her personal blog.

References

External links

Kakan Hermansson on Blogspot
(includes images of artwork)
''Den nya kvinnogruppen'' (The New Women's Group)
(in Swedish) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hermansson, Kakan 1981 births Living people Swedish LGBT entertainers Swedish lesbian artists Swedish television hosts Swedish women comedians Swedish radio presenters Swedish women radio presenters Konstfack alumni People from Lund Swedish feminists Swedish women television presenters 21st-century Swedish women artists 21st-century Swedish comedians