“Animation is my message,” says Feline Hjermind (1993), “which means that I am not simply using animation as a technique to make videos from static images, but also to unsettle static social concepts. I am trying to set social standards in motion as much as static images.” As a student, the Danish artist left for the Netherlands because she had noticed that this country’s artistic field focused less on individual art disciplines. Today, her own practice is therefore a boundary-transcending mix of video manipulation and installation, infused with architectural elements. She is furthermore interested in visual culture and how we attach meaning to images.
For Prospects, Hjermind is showing the video installation If you begin to feel the house catching at you (2023), a work prompted by the concept of ‘emotional architecture’: spaces that condition us to feel and act in a certain way. “Over the past two years I have been specifically focused on settings where people are expected to experience intense emotions, like the sets of porn films, melodramas, or horror films.” Although these spaces usually simply serve as a backdrop to support the storyline, Hjermind turns them into the main characters. Four screens show apparently idyllic images of Danish houses that slowly transform into subtle horror scenes. The houses almost turn into “clumsy characters”, according to the artist, as they are slowly endowed with human or monstrous qualities. In this way, Hjermind explores how a backdrop can determine the meaning of an image.
Text: Milo Vermeire
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang