Nordic Award Winner 2022

Homage to Airway - Sophia Ioannou Gjerding (Denmark)

Artwork description

While ‘airway’ can be a reference to air travel and human respiration alike, in this context ‘Airway’ is the name of a dog. Homage to Airway takes its starting point in a 1920s photograph depicting the dog Airway, who was part pet, part lab animal to two anaesthesiologists. Their tests on Airway led to the development of a device which serves to open the patient’s airways. The invention became known as Guedel’s Airway, named after both the doctor and dog involved.

The work also takes its point of departure in a sculpture created by Friedrich Wilhelm Wolff in 1847: a satirical bronze sculpture depicting Germany’s first experiment with anaesthesia, conducted on an old, blind bear in the Berlin zoo. In the centre of the sculpture, we see the bear surrounded by various animals. Clad in human clothes, the animals have features pointing to the various doctors involved in the experiment.

These characters are posited within a tale that takes place in two worlds simultaneously: The Garden and The Plot. We witness two virtual scenarios with a tangled relationship to reality—and to each other. The unifying figure of the work is Broken Face, a hybrid between a sculpture and a petrified console game character: a so-called ‘non-playable character’.

Based on this starting point, Gjerding questions how we perceive the world through the images we produce and surround ourselves with. Homage to Airway is about the status of images and how we live with, and re-code, existing images.

Partners and collaborators

Script, editing & composition: Sophia Ioannou Gjerding CGI & animation (The Garden & Broken Face): Lars Hemmingsen Nørgaard (Midtjysk 3D Service) 2D animation (surgeons & bear): Kristina Stengaard 2D animation (dog/chameleon/ox morph, dog/bear morph, walking dog & dog dreamer): Sophia Ioannou Gjerding 3D animation (trees, chicks & plants): Sophia Ioannou Gjerding 2D animation (smoke scenes, The Garden): Mark Tholander Watercolor: Sophia Ioannou Gjerding Voice (Broken Face): Aoife Slevin Flute: Johanne Buus Andersen Tracks, ORKI: 3rd Interlude & Song: Nina Møller Sound design (The Garden), recordings & final mix: Tobias Sejersdahl

Special thanks: Matthew Travers & Xenia Xamanek

Supported by Statens Kunstfond, Knud Højgaards Fond, Beckett-Fonden & The Open Workshop department of The Animation Workshop