Alice Lang: Cool Story Bro

Exploring Language, Power & Feminist Resistance

Cool Story Bro is the latest body of work by Alice Lang, an Australian artist based in Los Angeles. Through a dynamic fusion of text, symbols, and slogans, Lang investigates how language can be both a tool of oppression and liberation, particularly in the context of gender and power.

Swearing, Symbols & Feminist Reclamation

This work delves into the historical tensions between women and swearing, acknowledging the long tradition of using profanity to challenge oppressive norms. Lang employs marbled paper, historically used for decorative book covers, as a symbolic backdrop for her text-based works. Her labor-intensive process of repeatedly tracing marbled collaged letters is a meditative act, a way to freeze language in motion and reclaim control over it.

The Smiley: A Shifting Symbol

The smiley face, a recurring motif in Lang’s work, originally symbolized corporate morale-boosting but has since been co-opted by countercultures, drug culture, and digital emojis. In this exhibition, its meaning shifts yet again, when juxtaposed with feminist slogans and curse words, it highlights the oppressive power of speech used to objectify women, from catcalling to the demand that women “smile.”

Ceramics & The Body as a Site of Objectification

A parallel series of ceramic works explores the female body as an object of social control. Lang examines how clothing and fashion, often seen as markers of modesty or empowerment, can also reinforce objectification and deny female agency. These ceramic garments, featuring strategic cutouts that expose the body, challenge the notion that modest clothing provides protection from objectification.

About the Artist

Alice Lang’s cross-disciplinary practice spans ceramics, painting, and text-based works, examining how power structures manifest in individual bodies and mass culture. Her work interrogates how meaning and value shift based on cultural context, using this fluidity to subvert dominant narratives and amplify female voices.

Education & Residencies

MFA, CalArts (2015)

Residencies in Canada, New York, and Los Angeles

Awards & Recognitions

Queensland Art Gallery Melville Haysom Scholarship (2009)

Australia Council New Work Grant (2012)

Lord Mayor’s Emerging Artist Fellowship (2012)

Freedman Foundation Traveling Scholarship (2013)

Feminist Activism

Lang is a founding member of LEVEL, a feminist art collective based in Brisbane, Australia, dedicated to creating spaces for female and non-binary artists.