Would you give it up, to get rid of the Anxiety? Would you give it up, to get rid of the Fear?

by Innsendar greinar | Miðvikudagur.02.2022 | Innsent efni

Would you give it up, to get rid of the Anxiety? Would you give it up, to get rid of the Fear?

For as long as I can remember, I have occasionally experienced a vision in a strange dream state shortly before waking. At first I don’t see and feel anything, and nothing exists. However, there comes a strange moment during which my consciousness produces a strong visual-emotional creation marked by features such as: Realism – real people from my life, real places, real characters of people. Excitement – a strong leading emotion that sometimes changes into another and sometimes works in parallel, even with the heavy ones. Time – which is future time, and I am aware of it. Semantic abstractionism – material forms in abstract situations, environments and movement. That vision creates images and emotions and guides me through the journey.

The journey of this exhibition starts with a two questions and a short survey built around them. Anyone can get involved by using a QR codes shown on each poster. Posters are displayed just for a day before an exhibition opens, and they are going to be everywhere – all over the city in a real world, on the internet and traditional media. Surveys results are reflecting how the society feels and reacts in the exact place and time. After processing they will be an integral part of an exhibition and artistic research. We can say that the exhibition is extended not only in time but also in space – out of the gallery showing. Moreover the gallery experience itself is something more than you could expect…

It starts with a „welcome drink” at the beach bar! But there is a catch – a little task to do, to be able to get one. Task is simple and it supports the artist in his artistic journey. Than you can enter an exhibition hall… and this part you need to experience by yourself.

The scope of it is reflected in author’s statement:

I thought the universe was a vision.
The world of language and narration is full of sadness and regret.
Often, I have projects that I can’t finish or see-through.
I know everything happens for a reason.
What makes a person is their own story.
People do live in their own imaginary stories.
Wounded and alone, but time never left.
Time will review how the most minor
and eternal things can significantly impact life.
When I look into people’s eyes, I realize
that no one can see or observe the world the same way as I do.
I know that others will exceed my expectations
in their excellence
in the form of time.

Exhibition text by Sabine Fischer

WOULD YOU GIVE IT UP, TO GET RID OF THE ANXIETY? WOULD YOU GIVE IT UP, TO GET RID OF THE FEAR?

An exhibition: WOULD YOU GIVE IT UP TO GET RID OF THE FEAR? WOULD YOU GIVE IT UP TO GET RID OF THE ANXIETY?
Had an opening 11th of February 17.00. KUBBURINN and it was open for a week, gathered over 250 recipients, which made it one of the most popular exhibitions in Iceland, It has been described by polish -sociaty portal: icelandnews.is (PL)

Finally, Patryk was interviewed by Hús & Hillbilly which included a lengthy article in issue # 153 of the STUNDIN newspaper.

The exhibition space began outside of the exhibition space – in the public space, and in the internet space. When you come into the show you saw huge posters on both sides of the school, when entering the space there was a bar with drinks opposite of exhibition space, then you enter the space of exhibition, and you hear a lector who was saying what the exhibition is about. You saw artist with a facemask of himself putting answers from surveys on a curtain and in the middle, there was a space-separated with silk material with a crystal ball on a stand envelope, in which you saw a video.

Patryk designed a space with intention that will visually stimulate emotional, psychological and perceptual quality, as it has stimulated himself during his research. He invented it in his vision process. He used various materials and techniques to manipulate the space, and he rearranged it into layers. He could compare it to that I imagined in a structure as an onion is made.

Artist Sabine Fisher made a text about an exhibition:

For a brief moment, you feel like you’re entering the hidden room of a mentally disturbed person trying to live out his antisocial emotions and obsessions in a secret place, but you realize pretty quickly that what surrounds you here is actually the social space, drawn as a mentally troubled human community that we enter and experience day after day.

The provocative way of asking the questions about your fear and your anxiety as if they were your capital of self, creates an interesting curiosity that one mitigates with a slight suspicion, because it speaks the same impactful language of personality stylizations. Entering the room, one is immediately surrounded by language, by countless newspaper articles and media clippings of all kinds in their familiar visual appearance, as we encounter them in our daily media use. All these different snippets of reality literally recite the word „fear“ or “anxiety” in one way or another. The massive variation in which these words can be found in articles or news stories transforms their meaning into a surreal experience. Printed and presented on ceiling-to-floor fabric that spans the entire room, one feels the flood-like force that this subtle language imposes on the body. Sometimes, in between the fabrics, the concrete walls of the room covered with „real“ papers emerge, looking like a raw material and spreading a touch of reality to which one wants to cling somewhat desperately even though it is a reality that you do not wish reality to be made of.

The complex layering of reality and information in this language-used environment takes place not only in the visual plane. A narrative voice, psychologically intent on embodying confidence and self-assurance as an obvious acting performance, again creates a sensory desire for stability that one is aware can only be a simulation of hope. But also this time with a nuance of desperate longing for human simultaneity, one is willing to absorb the constructed narrative as a structure of liveliness.

Real liveliness is experienced through the performative act of the artist in the space, who anonymizes and reduces his body through a face mask made of plaster and dressed in black. Invisibly driven by something, he fills in, in empty spaces that are everywhere on the printed curtains, handwritten the words „yes“ or sometimes „no“, attributed by a small digital

notebook he holds in his hands. The aluminum ladder he uses to reach the blanks is paradoxically refreshing in its profanity, as something that is gratefully simple to grasp. Again one is willing to follow this human reference as something stable.

Behind the purposeful behavior of this body one hopes to find answers to this inescapable reality. The answers „yes“ or „no“ provide the fragments to a personality profile generated by a personality test. Once one has decoded this behavior of that anonymous body, one feels a moment of powerful disillusionment that provides clarity about one’s own body. Where and how can a personality sit in a body that separates body and mind? A self composed of a linearity lives in a permanent fear of losing stability, because this self trusts a language that is abstract and has no physical or concrete existence as its foundation.

An answer to flee this inescapable reality is found in the center of this complex conceptual space. Light transparent silk curtains draw a small room in the middle of which, on a metal frame, sits a hand-sized glass sphere that breaks through a paper envelope. If one dares to look into this sphere, one sees through it a video, played on a cell phone, which shows wandering through nature in detail shots and half-totals. Also perceptible are the sounds of these natural environments, which are lost in the entirety of the space, because the audio voice takes all the audible attention from the visitor.

This small poetic gesture creates a very interesting perception of the weighting in the relationships of the body’s internalities. If one understands this space created by Patryk Wilk as an interior of the body with the visualization of the layers that envelop our inner core, the fabrics as skin and membrane that carry, pass or filter imprinted information, then one experiences the deep complex psychological attempts to understand bodily functioning, as an empathic view of the body’s own insecurities in the face of a supra-bodily linearity.

In order to bring this overweight into a balance, we find in ourselves an instrument which, similar to the secrets of nature, brings forth beauty. If we connect this beauty with linearity, it becomes poetry. What if we use our own beauty to create body based poetry and let it permeate the layers to the outside? We then no longer use our membranes as protection against the things that enter us from the outside. Then we can start trusting the things out there and open up to the social space. Imagine a world where the body’s own beauties combine with linearity and circulate out there in many different forms. Would you give it up for that?

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Patryk Wilk (b. 1995 in Łódź, Poland)
He is a conceptual painter, author of installations, videos, and art-based research work. His very expressive works are focused on consumer society subjects and the role of the artist itself, combining social, educative, and art criticism, without tabu, with the existential dimension. Patryk is currently graduading Master of Fine Art at Iceland University of The Arts in Reykjavik, Iceland.

An exhibition: WOULD YOU GIVE IT UP TO GET RID OF THE FEAR? WOULD YOU GIVE IT UP TO GET RID OF THE ANXIETY?

11-18 February 2022
Opening 11th of February 17.00-19.00 Starts with performance at 17:00 Open 12 – 18 of February, 18.00- 20.00

KUBBURINN, Listaháskóli Íslands / Iceland Academy of the Arts Laugarnesvegur 91, 105 Reykjavík

patrykwilk.com / www.lhi.is

Hið óræða haf sem aðskilur tvo heima þegar Þúsund tungur óma

by Innsendar greinar | Fimmtudagur.09.2017 | Innsent efni

Hið óræða haf sem aðskilur tvo heima þegar Þúsund tungur óma

Að skapa verk sem dansar á mörkum tón-, sjón- og sviðslista er markmið dönsku leik- og listakonunnar Nini Juliu Bang sem frumsýnir verk sitt Þúsund tungur í Tjarnarbíói þann 29. september n.k. Þar mun hún ásamt bandarísku leikstýrunni Samönthu Shay sýna annað samstarfsverk sitt á Íslandi en síðasta sumar sýndu þær verkið Of Light sem var samið undir handleiðslu Marinu Abramovic og fékk talsverða athygli. Þær sýna nú nýtt verk sem leiðir gesti inn í veröld varnarleysis og ólíka menningarheima. Blaðamaður heyrði í þeim og ræddi við þær um listina og innblásturinn á bakvið verkið.

Hver er ykkar bakgrunnur og hvernig kom til að þið fóruð að vinna saman?

N: Í tíu ár var ég leik- og söngkona í Teatr ZAR, leikhóp The Grotowski Institute í Póllandi. Við ferðuðumst um allan heim með sýningar og Samantha hafði séð hópinn nokkrum sinnum. Við tvær kynntumst þó ekki fyrr en ég var að segja skilið við hópinn. Þá var Samantha byrjuð á hugmyndavinnu fyrir sýninguna Of light og ég stökk inn í það ferli. Ég held að við höfum báðar vitað frá upphafi að þetta samstarf og vináttan sem myndaðist væri eitthvað sem myndi bara dýpka. Núna höfum við unnið saman í fjórum löndum og frumsýnt tvö verk.

S: Ég kem einnig úr leikhúsheiminum. Ég lærði leiklist en hef að mestu leyti verið að búa til mín eigin verk síðan ég útskrifaðist, verk sem eiga margt skylt við gjörningalist og snúa upp á hugmyndir um hefðbundið leikhús. Einnig hef ég leikstýrt tónlistarmyndböndum og kennt vinnustofur um listsköpun. Þegar ég sá Nini á sviði með Teatr ZAR varð ég agndofa. Þessi hópur býr til verk sem eru svo líkamleg og drifin áfram af hljóði. Enn þann dag í dag er verkið þeirra Gospels of Childhood eitt af mínum uppáhalds sviðsverkum. Allt við það er svo sjónrænt og áhrifaríkt fyrir skynfærin að maður verður ekki samur eftir. Á sviðinu var fljót af brotnu gleri og viðargólf sem var eins og tromma þegar leikararnir köstuðu sér í gólfið. Þetta verk hafði mikil áhrif á mig og mín verk. Ég var svo kynnt fyrir Nini löngu seinna og bað hana um leið að vinna með mér að Of Light. Við fundum strax að þetta samstarf myndi vara lengur en þetta eina verk.

Listakonurnar Nini Julia Bang og Samantha Shay. Ljósmynd: Victoria Sandra.

Hvernig varð verkið A Thousand Tongues til og hvaðan kemur titillinn?

N: Mín upplifun er að allt sem ég skapi komi frá furðulegri en þrjóskri þörf í mér til að skilja, vinna úr og tjá mínar upplifanir. A Thousand Tongues óx innra með mér í mörg ár áður en að ég bað Samönthu um að leikstýra því. Ég vissi að hún myndi skilja kjarna þess sem ég var að reyna að segja, jafnvel þó að ég gæti ekki sett það í orð sjálf heldur aðeins tjáð það með tónlist og hreyfingu. Í verkinu syng ég á 10 tungumálum og ég vildi að það kæmi fram í titlinum. Mér hefur alltaf líkað við máltækið að tala tungum sem og söguna af Babelturninum og hvernig við töluðum öll sama tungumálið í upphafi. Þaðan kemur titillinn Þúsund tungur. Ég laðast einnig að hefðbundinni tónlist ólíkra landa og hefða því að mér finnst hún geyma raddir forfeðranna. Það er einhver mikill og merkilegur kraftur í söngvum sem hafa ferðast á milli kynslóða, sumir í þúsundir ára og í gegnum þúsundir manna.

Hvað þýðir verkið fyrir ykkur og hvað viljið þið að áhorfendur skynji?

S: Verkið er um varnarleysi og hvernig Nini tjáir það með rödd sinni. Tónlistin kemur frá svo mörgum heimshornum að það óhjákvæmilega sýnir ólíka menningarheima. Styrkleikinn í rödd Nini er fólgin í því hvernig hún beitir henni. Hún býr til einstaklega sérstök hljóð og kemur þeim til áhorfenda á tilfinningaríkan hátt. Allt það sjónræna í verkinu, hreyfingar, tími og tímasetning, tónn og umhverfi er sprottið frá þessari rödd, sem ræður ríkjum í verkinu.

N: Síðustu 15 árin hef ég ferðast afar mikið og hef oft orðið hissa að það skiptir ekki máli hvert ég fer, við eigum það öll sameiginlegt að deila von um að finna frið, frelsi og ást. Hljómar klisjulega en fjölmiðlar eru sífellt að segja okkur hversu ólík við erum en það er ekki mín reynsla. Það sem er ólíkt okkar á milli ætti að vera það sem okkur finnst áhugavert hvort við annað, ekki öfugt. Í verkinu tala ég til undirmeðvitundarinnar, tilfinninga og innsæisins. Í sköpunarferlinu reyndi ég að skrapa af mér eins mörg lög og ég gat til að vera sem næst kjarnanum og varðveita uppsprettuna sem veitir mér hve mestan innblástur.

Ljósmynd: Samantha Shay

Hvaðan kom innblásturinn fyrir sjónræna hluta verksins?

S: Nini var með margar myndir í huga sem voru henni innblástur. Myndirnar fönguðu andstæður á milli ljóss og myrkurs sem og mikilvægi frumefnanna. Ég valdi að vinna með ævaforna sögu frá Mesapótamíu, sögu sem kemur frá gleymdum menningarheimi Súmerana, þar sem nú er Írak. Þar var mæðraveldi og þeir tilbáðu gyðju sem hét Inanna. Í sögunni, sem er hluti af sálmi, kafar Inanna ofan í undirheima. Við hvert hlið þarf hún að sleppa hluta af sjálfri sér þar til hún kemst á lokastað. Mér finnst fallegur kraftur í kjarna sögunnar. Mér finnst upphaf sálmsins svo magnað; “Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, opened her ear to the great below“ og í þessari menningu þýddi orðið eyra það sama og viska. Þetta nær því yfir þá hugmynd að viska komi ekki einungis úr djúpum sálarleiðangrum, heldur að sú leið tengist hljóði sem var ástæðan að mér fannst hún passa svo við þetta verk.

Þaðan spratt hugmyndin að hafa vatn á sviðinu en það er frumefnið sem hefur verið tengt við hið kvenlega og talið vera hlið til undirheima á sama tíma og það er talið heilandi.

Þið voruð báðar á Íslandi í fyrra til að sýna verkið Of light í Tjarnarbíói við mikið lof. Af hverju Ísland?

N: Þegar ég var aðeins 17 ára fór ég á puttanum um Ísland og var ein í mánuð. Ég var að skrifa ritgerð um ósýnilegar verur og vildi rannsaka tengingu Íslendinga við álfa og náttúruna. Það var rosalega mikilvæg reynsla fyrir mig því þessi ferð gaf mér hugrekkið til þess að ferðast ein um heiminn nokkrum árum seinna. Síðan þá hefur Ísland átt sérstakan stað í hjarta mér og að heimsfrumsýna Of light hérna var töfrum líkast.

S: Mér líður sem verk mín hafi verið betur skilin og metin hér. Eftir að hafa ferðast fram og aftur frá Íslandi undanfarin ár þá er ég nýflutt hingað og var að byrja í meistaranámi í svðislistum við LHÍ. Ég tek eftir miklu óttalausari tilraunum í listum hér á landi. Þegar ég sýni verk mín annars staðar er eins og fólki finnist óþæginlegt að geta ekki sett verkið í orð strax, því ég vinn mikið með tilfinningar og hið sjónræna. Á Íslandi eru ekki sömu tálmar í leikhússköpun og ég hef upplifað annars staðar. Það gæti tengst öfgunum sem þjóðin upplifir með veðrinu eða einangrunin sem fylgir því að vera eyja. Það er varnarleysi í því, auðmýkt og einhver sannur anarkískur kraftur. Ég sé hungur í raunupplifunum í senunni hér og djúpan exístensíalisma líka. Það er þar sem bestu verkin koma, í þránni að halda lífi í óbyggðum eða að verða óbyggðirnar sjálfar. Það er forgangsröðun hér að verk eigi að skilja eftir sterka upplifun. Og þetta kann ég svo vel að meta.

Dagný B. Gísladóttir

Aðeins tvær sýningar, 29. september kl. 20:30 og 1. október kl. 20:30, í Tjarnarbíói.
Miða má nálgast hér: https://tix.is/is/buyingflow/tickets/4553/
Heimasíður listamannanna:www.samantha-shay.com / www.ninibang.com
Aðalmynd með grein: Silvia Grav.
Hér má sjá umsögn Bjarkar Guðmundsdóttur þar sem hún mælir með verkinu Of Light.

In the Beginning. Again

by Innsendar greinar | Föstudagur.09.2017 | artzine in english, Innsent efni

In the Beginning. Again

The question of creativity is a recurring theme in the work of Erla S. Haraldsdóttir. One might say that Haraldsdóttir ceaselessly challenges the idea that an artist can create ex nihilo (out of nothing) and questions the romantic notion of “divine inspiration”. For many years, she has been creating fictional systems as tools for her artistic process, as is perhaps most apparent in her paintings. Her method is motivated by an urge to create a space of artistic freedom through self-imposed restrictions, such as instructions given to her by friends and colleagues or specifically devised systems. Her works are often the result a sampling of art-historical references that displace the western-oriented hegemony of art. Their themes reflect on the wider question about the beginning, about getting started. How to choose where to start when you could start anywhere? In a conversation, Haraldsdóttir once described the white canvas as a wandering planet without a sun to circle around, implying that the artist must invent that sun or system defining the orbit of the work.

What better way to proceed, therefore, than to choose the beginning of the beginning as a theme? As its title suggests, Genesis is centred on the story of creation as it is told in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions. It is a familiar theme within western church art and a common subject of commissioned and self-determined works by artists and artisans throughout history. Haraldsdóttir already began with that beginning once before – this is indeed the second time in a short while that she is presenting a series of paintings about the story of creation. The first (Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik, and Konstepedimin, Gothenburg, 2016) took its cue from the Íslenska teiknibokin, a compilation of medieval drawings made by Icelandic artists between 1300 and 1500. Haraldsdóttir’s paintings, which recall medieval stained glass windows, were composed on a grounding of complementary colours to the effect that the colours seem to glow from within.

„Water“ (First day) 2017, oil on canvas, 120 x 70cm. Photo: Thomas Bruns

„Ocean and Heaven“ (Second day) 2017,
oil on canvas, 120 x 70cm. Photo: Thomas Bruns

„Binary Solarsystem“ (Fourth day) 2017,
oil on linen, 120 x 70cm. Photo: Thomas Bruns

„Unicorn“ (Sixth day) 2017, oil on canvas, 120 x 70cm.
Photo: Thomas Bruns

„Forest in Maine“ (Third day) 2017,
oil on canvas, 120 x 70cm. Photo: Thomas Bruns

„Colored Raven“ (Fifth day) 2017,
oil on canvas, 120 x 70cm. Photo: Thomas Bruns

„Sylvía“ (Sixth day) 2017, oil on canvas, 120 x 70cm.
Photo: Thomas Bruns

For Genesis, Haraldsdóttir has refined her motifs. When, with her characteristically bold and rich palette, she addresses the story of creation, she also reflects on her own creative processes. We recognise several elements from the story of the origins of the world, but also from art history as well as recurrent details from the artist’s own imagery. Reflections, water mirrors, plants, the Icelandic horse and the crow are intertwined with art-historical quotations and personal snapshots. At first sight, the Fourth Day resembles an album cover or a velour poster from the 1970s; the colourful frame surrounding the unfashionable portrait of the artist’s mother is based on a pattern used by South African Ndbele tribes in jewellery and murals; and the Icelandic horse of the Sixth Day is a paraphrase of a work by the Icelandic painter Þórarinn B. Þorláksson. Despite this rich world of signs and references, it should perhaps be emphasised that the image itself is not what guides Haraldsdóttir’s creation. One can certainly say that she works with symbolic and figurative painting, but as far as painting itself is concerned – the creation of the image – this exhibition demonstrates that the way the image comes into being is as relevant to her as the final result. In other words, the body of the painting, the texture, is even more important than the subject matter. Haraldsdóttir does not make a painting of something; rather, she paints something into existence. The image appears through a mixture of oil and pigment on linen cloth, and it is the movements of the hand that generate the image.

Rather than fighting the materiality of the paint, the texture is part of a process in which pigment and oil shape the outcome. From translation, creation turns into transformation, a series of events that allow the strokes of the brush to bring a breath of wind to the pictorial landscape. Painting is a desire to exist in the moment. And we desire the moment, because the moment, when it happens, can be a new beginning. Perhaps this is why Haraldsdóttir has chosen to stray from the linear story that presents seven evolutionary steps in the creative hierarchy of development. Instead, the tranquility that characterises each of her paintings induces a new beginning. There is a contradictory chronology in the drawn-out temporality of this series: a mountain emerges from the mirroring water, and the eye of the rainbow-shimmering raven reflects the sun in the previous painting.

„Genesis“, 2017, installation view. Solo exhibition. Lund Cathedral, The Crypt, Lund, Sweden. 12 paintings, oil on linen, various sizes. Photo: Kalle Sanner.

When comparing Haraldsdóttir’s paintings to the long tradition of artworks exploring the story of creation, one of their most striking aspects is precisely this sense of serenity. This is particularly apparent in Seventh Day, the most prominent painting in her sequence. With its dominant placement and larger size, it acts as a kind of “altarpiece” in the Cathedral crypt. But while God in the Íslenska teiknibókin or in the work of William Blake is shown blessing the world, and while Michelangelo’s six paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel never let the Creator rest, the motif of Haraldsdóttir’s centerpiece is based on a smartphone photograph of the artist’s legs, taken while she was lying in bed. It is framed by a pattern composed of what apears to be tubes of paint, and encompasses a wide spectrum of colours. While the rainbow symbolises the Second Creation, the sign of covenant between God and all life on earth (Genesis 9:17), it is the background that immediately catches the viewer’s attention: here we see the vernacular depiction of an untidy apartment, with a paintbrush stuck in a vase and a lopsided frame on the wall.

Theological discussions generally contrast the notion of creatio ex nihilo with creatio ex materia (creation out of matter) and creatio ex deo (creation out of the being of God). With the final painting in her series, Haraldsdóttir proposes to combine the three. Kazimir Malevich claimed that laziness has been branded the mother of all vices when, in fact, it should be regarded as “the mother of life”. Mladen Stilinović ends his seminal text The Praise of Laziness (1993) with the words: “There is no art without laziness.” Similarly, Haraldsdóttir seems to suggest that the Seventh Day is not a well-deserved rest after a job well done. It is ultimate creativity. A stretched-out now.

Jonatan Habib Engqvist

Featured image: Sandra Henningsson
Artist website: erlaharaldsdottir.com

Contemporary Icelandic Prints in Other Hats

by Innsendar greinar | Fimmtudagur.06.2017 | artzine in english

Contemporary Icelandic Prints in Other Hats

Currently on view at the International Print Center in New York is Other Hats: Icelandic Printmaking, an exhibition of works curated by Ingibjörg Jóhannsdóttir and Pari Stave and organized around the concept of printmaking. It includes prints created through mechanical, bodily, and digital means. Together, they give a glimpse into the rich culture of storytelling in Iceland and reveal the myriad of ways in which the Icelandic landscape has been interpreted by contemporary artists. While the show is not centered around a specific theme, it gives a general understanding of the variety of work being produced by Icelandic artists and artists working with Iceland in mind.

The visual content of the exhibition ranges from paper works that focuses on the abstract and geometric, to works that evoke the scientific and corporeal in 3 dimensions, and even includes a participant-friendly printmaking workshop, Prints and friends (Prent & vinir) by the duo Leifur Ýmir Eyjólfsson and Sigurður Atli Sigurðsson.

Interpretations of the Icelandic landscape seem endless—moss covered mountains and jagged cliffs done in drypoint by the Danish artist Per Kirkeby hang opposite a monoprint of an evergreen tree by Sara Riel, titled Everyevergreen (Barabarrtré). A print by Rúrí from her Future Cartography series comments on the looming effects of climate change on Iceland’s coastline, made digitally with the help of scientific datasets. Line etchings by Georg Guðni beautifully capture mountainous landscapes with simplicity and elegance, while geometric etchings by Sigurður Guðmundsson, from the Sun Stands Still series, reference outdoor spaces but are left purposefully ambiguous for interpretation.

Central to the exhibition are prints by Helgi Þorgils Friðjonsson from the late 1980s and early ‘90s, which depict personal and mythological stories through illustrations, primarily referencing the human, animal, and spiritual realms. Regarded as Iceland’s “most prolific printmaker,” Helgi’s work gives a glimpse into the rich storytelling culture in Icelandic history, but imparts the viewer with his own subjectivity that is simultaneously humorous and sensual. The works that stood out are Gullfoss (1987), Red Clouds (Rauð ský, 1991), and I.N.R.I (1986), due to their bright coloring and uncanny narratives including human angels, a seal, and a surreal creature that brings to mind hallucinatory drawings done by Salvador Dalí.

The exhibition would seem incomplete without a synthetic fiber work by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (aka Shoplifter), who is an active member in New York City’s art community. On display is a 3D print of hers entitled Raw Nerves II, made of pink, green, orange, and purple synthetic hairs haphazardly wrapped around a solid center that resembles a neuron, or an underwater coral. At once fascinating yet repulsive, Shoplifter’s use of fake hair adds layers to the meaning of Raw Nerves II, which could even depict a heart, although indisputable is its connection to the intricate human nervous system.

A bright green monotype by Hrafnkell Sigurðsson contrasts with the minimalist photography he is known for, but joins his oeuvre nicely through its repetition of organic shapes. At first glance it, the print resembles a seascape replete with electric green jellyfish, but upon closer inspection, the shapes are distinctly made of hand prints. The skin folds and wrinkles of Hrafnkell’s fisted hands can be made out in some areas, but these details only heighten one’s fascination with his body-focused creative process.

Finally, only in retrospect can the hidden connections between nature and the human body be understood as being foreshadowed by the Dieter Roth print (Hat, 1965) featured on the cover of the exhibition catalogue—inside Roth’s hat are colorful valleys and ridges that attempt to blend into the texture of the man made accessory, but which, to the discerning eye, actually depict intricate details of the Icelandic landscape. Other Hats: Icelandic Printmaking is on view through June 10^th 2017.

By Anna Toptchi

All photos (c) International Print Center New York except „Hrafnhildur Arnarsdóttir Nervescape“, which came from her studio.

Fánar og spíralar -Þar sem áður var grænmetismarkaður er nú myndlist

by Innsendar greinar | Sunnudagur.05.2017 | Innsent efni

Fánar og spíralar -Þar sem áður var grænmetismarkaður er nú myndlist

ENGROS er nafn á stórri myndlistarsýningu sem leggur nú undir sig svæðið Grönttorvet í Valby, Kaupmannahöfn. ENGROS er að frumkvæði listamannahópanna PIRPA og SKULPTURI. Meðal sýnenda eru þær Þóra Sigurðardóttir og Sólveig Aðalsteinsdóttir ásamt fjölda danskra myndhöggvara.

Svæðið Grönttorvet er nú í miklu umbreytingaferli. Þar sem áður var lífleg atvinnustarfsemi á gríðarstóru svæði með grænmetis -heildsölumarkaði í stórum skemmum hefur verið skipulögð íbúðabyggð og er nú þegar hafin bygging íbúðahúsnæðis. Byggingar grænmetismarkaðanna standa nú að mestu tómar eða hafa verið rifnar niður og byggingarnar nýju rísa upp allt um kring með ótrúlegum hraða. Umhverfis sýningarsvæðið eru stórir hraukar af niðurbrotnum steinsteypuveggjum og malbiki – byggingarkranarnir vofa yfir. Næstu tvö árin mun þó hluti svæðisins fá að standa og verður vettvangur tímabundinnar menningar og listastarfsemi.

Sólveig sýnir 4 ljósmyndir sem fanga litina umhverfis grænmetismarkaðinn. Ljósmyndirnar eru prentaðar á efni í stærðinni 170 x 110 sem eru festar á stangir utandyra, blakta þar og þeytast til þegar flutingabílar keyra hjá.

Verk Þóru heitir Spíralstigi eða á dönsku Vindeltrappe. Hún hefur valið sér að vinna út frá hringstiga innandyra í rými sem er 2.95m x 2.80m x 8m. Verkið fjallar um stigann sem fyrirbæri í rými, með veggteikningum og prenti.

Hér er linkur á texta eftir Erin Honeycutt um verk Þóru: Spiral of love

Framlag Sólveigar og Þóru er styrkt af Myndlistarsjóði, Muggi og Letterstedtska sjóðnum.

Hér að neðan eru nokkrar myndir af þeirra framlagi til sýningarinnar.

The Spiral of Love, 2017, Installation View

Þóra Sigurðardóttir, The Spiral of Love, 2017, Installation View

SKULPTURI er hópur 8 myndhöggvara í Kaupmannahöfn sem með margvíslegum hætti hefur skipulagt sýningarverkefni sem snúast um að endurskilgreina svæði, listaverk og rými.

Hægt er að fræðast meira um hópinn hér: skulpturi.dk

SKULPTURI hefur með þessari sýningu á Grönttorvet í Kaupmannahöfn, komið í framkvæmd hugmynd sem um skeið hefur blundað meðal þeirra myndlistamannanna í hópnum, að standa fyrir stórri sýningu, sem er eins konar yfirlýsing (manifest) um margvíslega möguleika skúlptúrsins/rýmisverka, þvert á kynslóðir myndlistamanna.

PIRPA er sýningarrými á Grönttorvet sem myndlistamennirnir Cai Ulrich von Platen og Camilla Nörgaard reka. Cai Ulrich var boðið að taka þátt í sýningunni Dalir og hólar á Vesturlandi 2012 og þá varð til hugmyndin um að yfirfæra Dalir og hóla-hugmyndina inn á svæði Grönttorvet. Þessar tvær hugmyndir PIRPA og SKULPTURI féllu vel hvor að annarri og urðu að sýningunni ENGROS. Hér má sjá vefsíðu Cai: www.vonplaten.dk og Camilla: www.camillanorgaard.net

Þáttakendur sýningarinnar ENGROS eru hátt í 50 myndhöggvarar af öllum kynslóðum samtímans og eru fyrir utan þau sem þegar eru nefnd: Ellen Hyllemose, Jörgen Carlo Larsen, Finn Reinbothe, Jytte Höy, Marianne Jörgensen, Nanna Abell, Christian Skjödt, Amitai Romm, Nanna Abell, Lisbeth Bank, Julie Bitsch, Anders Bonnesen, Rune Bosse, Ole Broager, Mikkel Carl, Eva Steen Christensen, Jesper Dalgaard, Rose Eken, Esben Gyldenløve, Lone Høyer Hansen, Kasper Hesselbjerg, Ellen Hyllemose, Jytte Høy, Amalie Staunskjær Jakobsen, Klaus Thejll Jakobsen, Oscar Jakobsen, Veo Friis Jespersen, Kirsten Justesen, Marianne Jørgensen, Heine Kjærgaard Klausen, Esben Klemann, Jørgen Carlo Larsen, Karin Lind, Karin Lorentzen, Mathias & Mathias, Ragnhild May, Henrik Menné, Morten Modin, Astrid Myntekær, Tina Maria Nielsen, Kaj Nyborg, Peter Olsen, Lars Bent Petersen, Bjørn Poulsen, Finn Reinbothe, Amitai Romm, René Schmidt, Christian Skjødt, Julie Stavad, Hartmut Stockter, Morten Stræde, Daniel Svarre, Laurits Nymand Svendsen, Margrét Agnes Iversen, Malte Klagenberg, Jens Tormod Bertelsen, Søren Krag, Cilla Leitao, Sune Lysdal, Carla fra Hellested, Lorenzo Tebano, Anna Samsøe, Rikke Ravn Sørensen, Mikael Thejll, Charlotte Thrane, Fredrik Tydén, Sif Itona Westerberg og Torgny Wilcke.

Sýningin opnaði þann 19 maí og stendur til 24 . júní, 2017.
Opnunartímar: miðvikudag – sunnudags kl. 12 – 18

www.skulpturi.dk

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