Artist Sophie Helsinger on Social Media and the 1920s
Cade Pinkerson (they/he)
Art is such a complex concept with the way it’s constantly shaped by cultural resets and shifts in the time period. Its ability to keep inconsistently consistent is unlike any other human invention. Segway to our current era at the end of 2021 (the time when this article is currently being written) where we are slowly diving into a whole new decade, where art can be anything in any form and subjectivity is key in criticism. Specifically visual art and the freedom people have creatively is beautifully extreme and radically unlimited.
Things like social media and the internet allow for so many things such as easier access to materials, faster ways to gain access to new inspiration, and even just simpler ways to become known in the art world. Now let's take it back almost 100 years, to what was art like in the 1920s. Things like fashion, music, paintings, and theatre were very different. Some were more classic and others trying to be as risque as possible in hopes of breaking out of some sort of societal mold. It may be a cliche but history repeats itself.
I had the pleasure to sit down with an upcoming artist that fits the bill perfectly for the topics being discussed in our current issue. Sophie Helsinger (she/her) is a Newport Beach based artist with a fascination for the morbid and macabre. “I was just a kid with an orange Crayola marker, and then suddenly I began to start posting everything until it turned into something and I found my audience” she said when asked about how she got her start. Helsinger tells us this whilst adorned in full thanksgiving dinner goth attire true to her brand. With a unique yet familiar art style her Instagram, TikTok, and promotional website feature many aspects of old and new clothing styles with a crossover into early 2010s fandom culture topped off with her O.C.s (Original Characters).
But where did this fascination with such an unpopular decade come from? I was eager to learn. “There's something about it that screams almost goth person like it's not goth itself but something about it feels dark, it wasn’t a great time for a lot of people and a lot of other people had money and thought okay let's party cause we are all about to die.” Helsinger states believing that a big contribution to her 1920s fever is 1920s music, or more accurately a lack thereof. “I'm a big poser when it comes to 1920s music” she says. When asked about specific influences she had this to say, “Will wood, I honestly didn’t wanna bring that up but I'm going to anyway since he accidentally became my brand mainly because he does that same sort of 20s incorporated thing with the chaos, and it's a lot of really dramatic piano playing and aggressive angry lyrics. It feels like swing music but new and loud, it doesn't feel like listening to 1920s music, it feels like you're in a speakeasy underage drinking. It's a very prohibition feeling.” There is certainly a sparkle in her eyes as I watch her describe this cryptic gothic wonderland of an aesthetic.
She may pretend as though she is a trapped artist in the 1920s, but she isn't and that comes with the issues experienced on social media. “I have found that very few things attract attention usually and people will pick one thing they like and they don't want anything else they'll only want that one thing over and over until they are sick of it and once they are that means they are sick of you and they don't care about anything else your doing.”
This commentary being a stark shift in the tone of our conversation but a necessary one. Helsinger goes on to express how Tiktok feels more like work where Instagram provides her a platform to be herself. Understandably being a teenager is hard, but having your creativity projected out for all to see and judge is another level. Yet Helsinger persists that the work she does is worth it and that as long as she can put out what she loves, the constant shift in opinions doesn't matter.
All this in saying where does she intend to go from here. An incredibly talented artist of course but is this just a fluke? A hobby taken too public? Or, is this a small step in the road to a blossoming career in a different field. This to me was the most important question with the most telling answer, and I digress the answer I got didn’t disappoint.
“I want to be the next Alex Hirsch”. She proclaims, following her known Gravity Falls addiction this is not a surprising statement but surely an interesting one. “I'd absolutely kill to just, you know, make an animated show and animate by myself and that's what I want to be able to do for my life.” In fact, she has started an animated cartoon she plans to release on her youtube channel upon completion. In many ways, she is very different from your average Gen Z teenager, and in many ways, she is the same. In reality, Helsinger presents a perfect example of a creative teenager who can appreciate the past but also enjoy the present. If you're interested in checking out her works on any platform you can find her under the name Sophie Helsinger on various platforms.
