Hoelsw is part of a very limited animation series that explores the ever-shifting nature of identity by examining notions of love and violence, power and submission, touch and distance. How much must one conform, and to which rules, to be considered a person? Does ‘I’ have to turn against oneself in order to meet external expectations and become? There is no self if there is no other. Ways of looking and being looked at, are central to this work. Hoelsw’s frames have been drawn swiftly using both my hands, following highly informal, gestural, and improvisatory procedures. There is no distinction between the research and the production stage in the way that I work. I try not to obey an organized thought or idea that I want to carry out, but to let a more chaotic friction of all the sources that constitute the research and creation process lead the stages of it. My fascination lies in capturing the essence of this raw, formative stage where identities are in flux. Rather than focusing solely on the final outcome, I am drawn to exploring the foundational elements that shape the evolving self, or, the evolving art piece. My intention is to access and communicate the sense of the place that we are, before we become. I see my approach to making as a form of resistance towards conventional cultivation.
