I<\/span>nnkaupalisti (Shopping List)<\/span><\/em> is just that, a shopping list presumably written first on a scrap of paper and then blown up and turned into a weaving that hangs from the ceiling. It\u2019s simple enough, a list of items down the left side, including milk, celery root, lamb, pizza, and an absent minded doodle at the top, as if scribbled while on a long phone call and needing an outlet for restless hands. That\u2019s it, just a hasty scrap of paper reproduced laboriously into an object that declares itself with a tasselled flourish. The genuineness allows me to sink into the reality of it, imagining what was for dinner that night. Are the carrots and celery root to go with the lamb? Is this for a dinner party, or a simple family meal? Certainly not just a meal for one. I begin to imagine the morning routine, perhaps breakfast is AB mj\u00f3lk and muesli every day, and the house has run out of AB mj\u00f3lk. Or is there a baby in the house and that\u2019s what it eats? Is the doodle actually an automatic drawing made by an adult, or a child\u2019s intentional step towards self expression? The writing of Lydia Davis comes to mind, micro stories using brevity to such a degree that Davis creates entire narratives in stories that are only one or two sentences. This throw away object transformed into a tapestry has not changed in its meaning, but the transformation does reframe its value from utility into an entryway to meditation on routine, consumerism, self care, or any place the viewer cares to go when imagining all the context surrounding the artefact of this one shopping list.<\/span><\/p>\n S\u00e1pur (Soaps) <\/span><\/em>is likewise engaging, 18 apparently handmade soaps arranged in an approximate grid on a table (itself composed of numerous folded white cloths like so much fresh laundry). Each soap is presented on a different plinth, a shoulder pad, a piece of hr\u00f6kkbrau\u00f0, an overturned tupperware box, the plastic net that comes around a bottle of duty free wine, and more. Each soap is different, some translucent, some opaque, each embedded with various materials and items, from neon plastic netting to bundles of strings, to glitter and dried flowers, and most intriguingly, dried noodles. <\/span><\/p>\n Though there is a definite air of cleanliness and tidying present in the overall arrangement, these soaps are not for cleaning or sudsing. They become less functional items created and used for a task (cleaning) and more something else. What are they? Gems? Insects trapped in amber? Time capsules? A small and orderly sculpture garden? What is the relationship between soap and plinth? And why are these specific items all here together? They\u2019re compiled of things you\u2019d find while cleaning underneath the couch, or in a junk drawer, yet here they all are, arranged in their own specific places.<\/span><\/p>\n As I walk from piece to piece, I begin to have the thought \u201cWhat is the point of this?\u201d. I\u2019ve been enjoying the intro and outrospection from some of the works, and certainly feel physically good in a room full of pink and orange and natural light. But why is this here? Visitors come in, look around for three minutes before leaving, and I imagine them thinking one of two things, either, \u201cThis stuff is nice, but who has time for this? The world is burning and I am supposed to lose myself in a landscape of dried flowers? And spend more than five seconds looking at an old grocery list? Everything is great? No, it is not.\u201d or, \u201cOooh, these soaps are just darling, they\u2019d make a fun Christmas gift.\u201d I think about self indulgence in fine art, questioning what it means to make things that are pretty, to make things that are useless, that drive no change in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n But as I watch other people watching, I think that maybe we are all missing the point. The title of the show, <\/span>Everything is Great<\/span><\/em>, is so tongue in cheek. It\u2019s the response to when someone asks you how things are going, and you don\u2019t want to get into how things aren\u2019t actually going great, but that\u2019s not a socially acceptable response, so you just say, \u201cEverything\u2019s fine.\u201d This work is well aware how the world is garbage, but it\u2019s not so preoccupied with the worry that every effort and work must have a clear purpose of bettering the world in order to be of worth. Another clue comes from a textile collage titled<\/span> Bleik klippimynd (Hva\u00f0 get \u00e9g svo sem gert?)<\/span><\/em> or <\/span>Pink Collage (What Can I Do Anyway?)<\/span><\/em>. It\u2019s got that question on there, and that becomes the thought pervading the entire show. It\u2019s not despair, but rather permission to lose oneself, if only for a few moments, in a miniature world of soap sculptures, pondering why they are arranged the way they are, or to imagine the life of the person who wrote that shopping list.<\/span><\/p>\n Every piece in <\/span>Allt F\u00ednt<\/span><\/em> has such delicious color and texture that the overall effect is like biting into a cold and refreshing fruit on an unusually warm spring day. Taken all together, the collected works are scraps gathered from around the home and re-presented as textile collages, textures draped over forms, swatches and samples, sketches and notes for later. These pieces are inconsequential things repurposed to demand thought, that expect consequence, not with a shout but with a small cough.<\/span><\/p>\n Rebecca Lord<\/em><\/p>\n Photo credits: Vigf\u00fas Birgisson<\/p>\n Allt F\u00ednt \/ Everything is Great<\/em> is on view at N\u00fdlistasafni\u00f0 until Sunday the 28th of April.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Step into Arna \u00d3ttarsd\u00f3ttir\u2019s solo show Allt F\u00ednt (Everything is Great) and be enveloped by an overwhelming warmth of pinks and oranges and plush texture. The exhibition features mixed media works, which range from woven tapestries to patchwork wall hangings to sculptures of different materials, giving the impression of fragments of a home excised and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":8488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" Step into Arna \u00d3ttarsd\u00f3ttir\u2019s solo show Allt F\u00ednt (Everything is Great)<\/i> and be enveloped by an overwhelming warmth of pinks and oranges and plush texture. The exhibition features mixed media works, which range from woven tapestries to patchwork wall hangings to sculptures of different materials, giving the impression of fragments of a home excised and rearranged in a gallery.<\/strong><\/p> Innkaupalisti (Shopping List)<\/span><\/i> is just that, a shopping list presumably written first on a scrap of paper and then blown up and turned into a weaving that hangs from the ceiling. It\u2019s simple enough, a list of items down the left side, including milk, celery root, lamb, pizza, and an absent minded doodle at the top, as if scribbled while on a long phone call and needing an outlet for restless hands. That\u2019s it, just a hasty scrap of paper reproduced laboriously into an object that declares itself with a tasselled flourish. The genuineness allows me to sink into the reality of it, imagining what was for dinner that night. Are the carrots and celery root to go with the lamb? Is this for a dinner party, or a simple family meal? Certainly not just a meal for one. I begin to imagine the morning routine, perhaps breakfast is AB mj\u00f3lk and muesli every day, and the house has run out of AB mj\u00f3lk. Or is there a baby in the house and that\u2019s what it eats? Is the doodle actually an automatic drawing made by an adult, or a child\u2019s intentional step towards self expression? The writing of Lydia Davis comes to mind, micro stories using brevity to such a degree that Davis creates entire narratives in stories that are only one or two sentences. This throw away object transformed into a tapestry has not changed in its meaning, but the transformation does reframe its value from utility into an entryway to meditation on routine, consumerism, self care, or any place the viewer cares to go when imagining all the context surrounding the artefact of this one shopping list.<\/span><\/p> S\u00e1pur (Soaps) <\/span><\/i>is likewise engaging, 18 apparently handmade soaps arranged in an approximate grid on a table (itself composed of numerous folded white cloths like so much fresh laundry). Each soap is presented on a different plinth, a shoulder pad, a piece of hr\u00f6kkbrau\u00f0, an overturned tupperware box, the plastic net that comes around a bottle of duty free wine, and more. Each soap is different, some translucent, some opaque, each embedded with various materials and items, from neon plastic netting to bundles of strings, to glitter and dried flowers, and most intriguingly, dried noodles. <\/span><\/p> Though there is a definite air of cleanliness and tidying present in the overall arrangement, these soaps are not for cleaning or sudsing. They become less functional items created and used for a task (cleaning) and more something else. What are they? Gems? Insects trapped in amber? Time capsules? A small and orderly sculpture garden? What is the relationship between soap and plinth? And why are these specific items all here together? They\u2019re compiled of things you\u2019d find while cleaning underneath the couch, or in a junk drawer, yet here they all are, arranged in their own specific places.<\/span><\/p> As I walk from piece to piece, I begin to have the thought \u201cWhat is the point of this?\u201d. I\u2019ve been enjoying the intro and outrospection from some of the works, and certainly feel physically good in a room full of pink and orange and natural light. But why is this here? Visitors come in, look around for three minutes before leaving, and I imagine them thinking one of two things, either, \u201cThis stuff is nice, but who has time for this? The world is burning and I am supposed to lose myself in a landscape of dried flowers? And spend more than five seconds looking at an old grocery list? Everything is great? No, it is not.\u201d or, \u201cOooh, these soaps are just darling, they\u2019d make a fun Christmas gift.\u201d I think about self indulgence in fine art, questioning what it means to make things that are pretty, to make things that are useless, that drive no change in the world.<\/span><\/p> But as I watch other people watching, I think that maybe we are all missing the point. The title of the show, <\/span>Everything is Great<\/span><\/i>, is so tongue in cheek. It\u2019s the response to when someone asks you how things are going, and you don\u2019t want to get into how things aren\u2019t actually going great, but that\u2019s not a socially acceptable response, so you just say, \u201cEverything\u2019s fine.\u201d This work is well aware how the world is garbage, but it\u2019s not so preoccupied with the worry that every effort and work must have a clear purpose of bettering the world in order to be of worth. Another clue comes from a textile collage titled<\/span> Bleik klippimynd (Hva\u00f0 get \u00e9g svo sem gert?)<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Pink Collage (What Can I Do Anyway?)<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s got that question on there, and that becomes the thought pervading the entire show. It\u2019s not despair, but rather permission to lose oneself, if only for a few moments, in a miniature world of soap sculptures, pondering why they are arranged the way they are, or to imagine the life of the person who wrote that shopping list.<\/span><\/p> Every piece in <\/span>Allt F\u00ednt<\/span><\/i> has such delicious color and texture that the overall effect is like biting into a cold and refreshing fruit on an unusually warm spring day. Taken all together, the collected works are scraps gathered from around the home and re-presented as textile collages, textures draped over forms, swatches and samples, sketches and notes for later. These pieces are inconsequential things repurposed to demand thought, that expect consequence, not with a shout but with a small cough.<\/span><\/p> \u00a0<\/p> Rebecca Lord<\/em><\/p> \u00a0<\/p> Photo credits: Vigf\u00fas Birgisson<\/p> Allt F\u00ednt \/ Everything is Great <\/i>is on view at N\u00fdlistasafni\u00f0 until Sunday the 28th of April.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[614,613,615,369],"class_list":["post-8460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artzine-in-english","tag-allt-fint","tag-arna-ottarsdottir","tag-everything-is-great","tag-nylistasafnid"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/artzine.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/55798275_2065195760270231_8260805041879777280_o.jpg\")
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