This video is a part of an exhibition and video series.

The stop animation is made of polymer clay figures and hand-painted existing photography edited with digital tools.

The body of work in this exhibition examines contemporary engagement with the existential dilemma via the lens of whimsical, cartoonish characters made real.

Through the use of irony and humor, this collection of dispelled, naïve characters attempts to achieve a perfect surface. Perfect superficiality. However, by doing so, they are left with failure and emptiness as the promise of happiness, of living the ideal Norwegian life, or Norwegian version of The American Dream, disappoints and leaves them with feelings of worthlessness.

What do they really crave? What do they really need? These are questions that I explore in their lives—as I do every day in mine.

This clay figure is climbing up on one of the most famous Norwegian landmarks, Monolitten. It’s a 30-meter-tall monument and statue created by Vigeland in the early 1900s, depicting human bodies carved out of a solid piece of stone, reaching up for the divine. In this video, the sculpture is presented as a part of a static picture in the animation. I painted the hair and naked body parts in fluorescent colors to give this a modern look and freshness. The clay character with similar body shape and colors climbs on this monument while reading lyrics from commercial songs (such as Kings of Convenience’s “The Girl from Back Then,” Coldplay’s “Fix You,” and Howard Jones’ “No One Is to Blame”). Like Icarus, she tries to reach the sun, but falls down. But the character stands up again and continues the meaningless climb and fall over and over again.