"...almost like one of the family"

My starting point is 30 letters written by Anna-Helèn to her big sister Clary in Rickarum. Anna-Helèn was a farmer's daughter from Bjärehalvön, who as a 19 year old got the chance to come along with one of the families visiting over the summer, the one of opera singer Stiebel, to "practise" in a city household.

She was supposed to be like a member of the family. She became a maid.

There is a flow of descriptions in the letters of everything she sees and is amazed by in this unknown environment - what she does, all the new food she cooks, the kitchen equipment she uses, and above everything - what she feels. She had never been that affected by class difference as a farmer's daughter before. She "waits on" the teenage children of the family when they ring an electric bell. She is pissed! It's 1933. Anna-Helèn is my mother, she died in 1997.

I am now making a charcoal animation where I use the descriptions of her letters as a base for the formation.
I also want the transformations to give associations to women's lives today, my own or others.

The music and sound of the animation is a collaboration with composer Carin Blom. Her opera voice will be an important part of the sound track.

The length of the animation will be about 10 minutes. It premières at Kabusa Konsthall 21 april 2007.