A few weeks ago, Madeline and I got to interview one of our heroes, Jenny Hval.
She had just released her new album, Iris Silver Mist (2025), which was named for a scent she used to wear. The record explores sensory transmutation, which inspired me to create a non-traditional video experience in the spirit of her work. I wanted the viewer to feel like they were inside the computer, a voyeur to my personal experience of the conversation.
Conducting an interview via Whatsapp with two artists was chaotic and inspiring, and editing it down to the length of “To be a rose” was obviously difficult. I chose to preserve the ethos of the project rather than the legibility of the conversation; it’s just more fun that way. The full transcript is here, for those interested.
I started out by making an Are.na board of images and words either directly pertaining to the album or reflecting what it made me feel. It felt like a similar exercise in some ways to how I make playlists, relating unrelated things until someone else can see the connections.
We talked about nuns, honey, and ghosts. I got inspired. Thank you to Madeline and Jenny for being down for this project.
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