The Snow globe

Mixed media installation, 2006

Video/animation loop projected from inside of structure

/…/ spatialities are neither real nor imagined, but are both’ real-and-imagined’ (Soja 1996)

The piece consists of an altar like sculptural body. From the middle rises a pedestal on which a clear globe sits. The only light in the space comes from the flickering light inside the globe. It’s snowing inside, snowflakes dance up towards the top of the globe and fall back down again, suggesting a deep space. Like lights slowly turning on a few small figures appear in the snow. At first frozen in motion, then starting to move. The number grows into a mass of people walking, passing each other, walking in and out of our view. When they walk outside the edge of the globe the image warps up on the sphere. The overall image becomes similar to a hologram. People walking in the streets in real video footage shot at different occasions have been applied to an animation program. They are assembled and used as puppets to present a seemingly natural scene of people walking in the streets.
Using the iconography of the snow globe allows to play on innocence, though looking into this particular miniature world could bring on an eerie feeling of dread as well. The piece is operating on a fine balance between playful magic and the feeling of something being very wrong.