Chapel of very small Creations (2022)
Animation
Duration: 7 min. videoloop

Credits
Animation and drawings: Simone Hooymans
Animation and special effects: Hans Pulles
Sound design Simone Hooymans and Hans Pulles.
Sound made in collaboration with students and staff of Leeds Conservatoire in the UK with composers: Dave Kane, Kari Bleivik and Christopher Quick.

Synopsis

The animation Chapel of very small Creations shows a cave made of green, softly shaped rock formations where enlightened, strange creatures emerge. Ephemeral and transcendental, these beautiful creations refer to the smallest organism on the planet with their liquid bodies that disperse, swim, fly and fall.
Life is recorded as a symphonic interaction between all elements that balance between the earthly and the other worldly, arousing desire for spirituality. 

The cave feels like a sacred place where sudden and inexplicable things happen. Small and gentle creatures are coming out of the water and suddenly appear from the sky. They start to fly around. These fragile and illuminated creations are the divine forces of nature.

All the creations are based on the smallest organism on the planet, radiolarians. To be seen in scientific drawings from biology encyclopedia and in the drawings of Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) a scientist who illustrated the smallest lifeforms that we mostly can’t see with the naked eye. I developed the drawings further and gave character to the lifeforms. 


With this installation I like to trigger the sensibility of faith and the longing for spirituality. Does it matter what form we are worshipping ? Can even the smallest life forms give us a divine moment?

Toppage photo credits: Øystein Thorvaldsen. Location Deichman Bjørvika Oslo.
Below left: Changwon Biennale 2022 South Korea
Below right: Tegnerforbundet “Viriditas” 2023. Oslo