when we dance we heal the world
Video, 2025
About the artwork
lyrics & translation (my own meaning for the lyrics even if not a literal translation)
恐ろしい terrifying
神が呼んでいる the spirits are calling
踊れ、踊れ みんなのために dance, dance, to save everyone
踊りは癒し 踊りは癒し dance is healing dance is healing
unlike in "and the world keeps going round" the smiley faced figures here are meant to be deities or spirits. in polytheistic culture gods are not just good or all powerful but have a more human emotional range so that's one reason why in this piece they still have human bodies and need masks to cover their true emotions or their true selves. the little story here is that the world is becoming so broken that we call on these deities to help save us and they try to do so through dance alongside us.
visuals created using luma photon & ray2, pika, clipdrop, freepik, runway & clipchamp for editing, upscaled in topaz (thank u LEGIO_X_)
littlecakes voiceover, AI generated audio by littlecakes using udio, edited in audacity.
Audio explanation
Listen to littlecakes discuss this work.
littlecakes is a thinly veiled alias. She is a Japanese woman living in the West. Her work using AI explores her experience as a native to both cultures, nostalgia, imagined folklore, and creating her own special space somewhere between sticky, messy, sweet, nightmarish, and the paranormal.
As an artist using her irl name, she has exhibited work or performed at venues as varied as a Mexican restaurant in Toronto and a sports bar in Boston, to institutions such as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and White Columns in New York. She has been a visiting lecturer at Rhode Island School of Design and at Pratt Institute. She ran a gallery out of her apartment for several years which was reviewed and featured in The New York Times and other publications. She was also the buyer and art director for a store/gallery in Tokyo for 10+ years featuring weird and wonderful artist made goods. She took a hiatus from art to pursue working with animals and was inspired to come back to art after finding and becoming involved in the web3 community.