The installation unfolds on a 24-minute loop, combining a 3-channel video, tactile moving sculptures, and sound.

The installation centers on a constantly reshaped mass, inviting reflection on touch and the reach of empathy—toward people, objects, or the abstract. It becomes a space for redefinition and where new meanings can emerge over time. This malleable substance evokes and plays with a range of associations from the playful shaping of clay in childhood, to something more raw and organic. Shaped through an evolving choreography of two hands, the soft form eventually transforms into interactive, tactile objects that inhabits the space alongside the visitors, inviting touch, interaction, or simply a sense of closeness. 
 

The hand, both physically and metaphorically, serves as a bridge between the body and the material world. Through this, the work explores the potential for a haptic gaze that transcends the intellect in order to engage on a deeper, more sensory level. 

The work delves into notions of kinesthetic empathy, touch, and fantasy, using these as tools to explore the intersections between the body, the material world, and collective experience. Through the intimacy of touch and tactility, it also addresses tension between closeness and distance, personal and universal, the humorous and the deadly serious, as well as both subjective and collective readings.
 

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HANDHELD was developed as part of a 3-month reisdency at IASPIS, Konstnärsnämnden in Stockholm autumn 2024, and will be further developed in 2025.