A pair of hands that belong together, the left and right of one person, fill the image. First slowly and then more quickly, they are engaged with each other in a sort of dance. One hand stretches and bends the fingers of the other; they fiddle with, turn and rub against each other, and are so immersed in each other that it is no longer clear which hand is leading and which is following. Cho’s work is often about the formal aspects of movement and image. Rhythm and sound play an important role in this. In Snap, it is the repetitive and varying sounds of ticking and clapping, clicks and cuts, that determine the rhythm, together with the movements of the hands. The sound is sometimes reminiscent of the ‘snapping’ you hear when someone is cracking his fingers; a sound that sends cold shivers down your spine. Halfway through, space is created for a new relationship between sound and image: each tick or clap is now accompanied by a brief red glow in the centre of the image, which until now was only black and white. This evokes the suggestion that the sounds are the echoes of these hands clapping, with the appearing and disappearing red in and between the palms representing the glow and afterglow.

Moving Images/Moving Bodies and Netherlands Media Art Institute
part of Moving Image/Moving Bodies Screening Programme

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