In April of 2024 I made a small piece of animation that was the seed of the idea: frames of animation built up on a rotating platform. I was interested in the dynamic between the growing sculptural form of accumulating frames and the more two dimensional experience of the interior animation. The sculpture becomes the carcass of the film’s expired animated life, and by reconciling the needs of the sculpture with the needs of the animation, both end up taking on unexpected organic qualities, suggesting further growth.

When the song was sent to me, I had instantly began started envisioning a Babel-like construction on the rotating platform, reinterpreting Bruegel’s paintings of the famous tower. “Tender” – with its themes of accumulation, consumption and decay, seemed like the perfect opportunity. The artist told me that the single’s leading image was in fact the Tower of Babel, and it felt like I had to do it.

The final video is the product of 130 days of work.