4.48 Dysphoria

A video work created in response to a play by Sarah Kane, and gender perceptions and queerness past and present.

British playwright Sarah Kane’s final piece, ‘4.48 Psychosis’, is a text addressed to a future lover who is not born until after her death, written from a butch-lesbian, gender non-conformist perspective. Noah Holtegaard’s video work ‘4.48 Dysphoria’ is a response to the piece, and is addressed to Kane himself. Here, the text speaks back from the perspective of the future lover in a kind of melancholic declaration of love to the queer people who came before them. Kane committed suicide in 1998 at a time when trans people were still considered mentally ill. Holtegaard was born a year later, and the work honors the trans and queer people who paved the way for the present.