Basel, b. 1985

Tina Braggar, as a conceptual artist, explores themes of originality, reproduction, authenticity, repetition, and difference in her work. Since 2011, she has been investigating these ideas through the “dancing bear,” a symbol associated with the 1970s American rock band The Grateful Dead. Braggar’s interest in the bear is largely unrelated to the band’s music. Instead, her artistic practice focuses on how this counterfeit icon challenges notions of the official versus the unofficial and the original versus the copy, concepts inherent in our extractive relationship with nature and culture.