SQ26 is a single channel video which is composed of the text of the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Snow Queen" from 1844. It is one of his most haunting and beautiful fairy tales—like a cold, glittering epic about love vs. emotional numbness. The entire text of the fairy tale is displayed on screen, overlaid on a timelapse video of a snow covered landscape, while a heavily processed and glitched audio track reads the text in hyper speed.
The fable is a classic narrative of a struggle between good and evil as experienced by the protagonists Gerda and her friend, Kai. Early on, a magical mirror created by a demon shatters, and tiny pieces scatter across the world. When a splinter gets into Kai’s eye and heart, it twists the way he sees things: beauty looks ugly, kindness feels stupid, and he becomes cold and cruel. In the end, Gerda reaches Kai and her tears melt the splinter in his heart. Her love breaks the Snow Queen’s spell...
The hypnotic and mesmerizing rhythm of the work situates it in a lineage of experimental cinematic projects such as Tony Conrad's "Flicker", and invites the viewer to immerse themselves in the wintry, minimalist tableau. As an allegory of layered motifs, from the climate crisis to the authoritarian rise of cruelty in the social sphere, the work draws us into its icy heart of darkness, to bear witness once again to the eternal recurrence of these themes...