Wednesday 12 | Aniko Kuikka

About

GAO is pleased to present a virtual reality (VR) moving image installation by the Finnish-born, Los Angeles-based artist, Anikó Kuikka. Showing in international exhibitions and film festivals, and often featuring a cast of archetypes from traditional fables, Kuikka’s work aims to deconstruct our pre-existing values surrounding notions of power, identity, and the psyche. Although her past installations have mostly focused on the surreal nature of everyday life in society, Wednesday 12 marks something of a departure in that its roots are unabashedly personal, drawing from an instance of childhood trauma. Until now, Kuikka has largely withheld the origins of her work, believing that the private revelations at its centre need not necessarily be disclosed. With Wednesday 12, however, she recasts a deeply felt, subjective herstory through the frame of a timeless narrative—the lost innocence at the core of Hänsel & Gretel. Kuikka strips the Grimms’ fairy tale down to its bones, transfiguring the allegorical witch into a paedophile.