4-min excerpt from the beginning of HOPE & FEAR.

HOPE & FEAR

The long-term project HOPE & FEAR is based on the answers of people of all ages and walks of life to two questions:

What is your greatest fear? What is your greatest hope?

The resulting triptych represents people from 7 countries on 6 continents, people the artist met and filmed on the streets of Beijing, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Copenhagen, Dar es Salaam, New York and Ulan Bator when there on residencies or showing her work in exhibitions.

The work provides space for reflection on contemporary mainstream media by offering the people in the work and its viewers the space to speak and listen to each other. One person at a time - teachers, street hawkers, policemen, artists, priests, shamans and imams, children, teenagers, parents and grandparents - fills each of the three screens, sharing their hopes and fears with a commonality and community that traverses continents, cultures and language.

Created to be exhibited in public space and galleries, HOPE & FEAR is a continuation of the artist’s long-standing use of photography and video to challenge prejudices and stereotypes.

Artist statement 

“In a global climate of increasing fear and polarisation, my work is motivated by the drive to question cultural stereotypes and investigate the mechanisms of defining the self or nation in opposition to the ‘Other’. This includes challenging the role of the media in generating exclusion and stigmatization – in framing and creating prejudices and minorities. I see HOPE & FEAR as an appeal to global solidarity and community. By giving people the chance to have a voice my own personal hope is that we all start to speak – and importantly – listen to each other.”

Charlotte Haslund-Christensen

EXHIBITIONS

INFO

HOPE & FEAR
Technical specifications: 
Duration: 29 min looped.
Exhibited as a 3-channel installation or single channel projection – both in stereo.
Language: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, English, French, Mongolian, Spanish and Swahili. English subtitles.
A password secured, full-length version of the work is available for review purposes. Please contact the artist at mail@charlottehaslund.com