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X-WR-CALNAME:Icelandic Art Center
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Icelandic Art Center
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DTSTART:20210101T000000
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230211
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230312
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20230209T102443Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230209T102443Z
UID:29317-1676073600-1678579199@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Daníel Magnússon: Constructive Vandalism
DESCRIPTION:The exhibition contains ten works that  Magnússon has been working on in recent years. “A circle and its diameter are obscurely related in an irrational ratio. This means that these most common forms of creation can not have relations refering to their own existence. Thus\, the circle can not describe its diameter and the diameter is unaware of the circle. The exhibition Constructive Vandalism is the wrecking of the perfect thesis of Galileo and Bruno and an exaltation of the geocentric theory of Ptolemy. The show is my equally rational attempt to describe a consensus about the cosmology\, as the circleʼs attempt to describe its diameter\,” says Daníel Magnússon in the exhibition catalogue. \nMost of the works are created with pencil and pen on paper. They are mostly intended as cartography for the centralised world of Ptolemy. Two of them are saliva print on cotton\, they serve as accompaniment to the other maps\, to lend this world a comprehensive foundation. \nDaníel Magnússon graduated from The Icelandic College of Art and Crafts in 1987 and immediately became known for interesting work which more often than not dealt with Icelandic culture. He is mostly known for sculptures and photographic work but has also designed and built furniture and sets for theatres and performances. Daníel has held well over ten solo exhibitions as well as participating in numerous group exhibitions in Iceland and abroad. His work can be found in the collections of Reykjavík Art Museum\, the City of Reykjavík\, various public institutions and private collectors around the world.
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/daniel-magnusson-constructive-vandalism/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/starchart-hverfisg-2023-bleksprautacopy_cr.202900.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221112
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230108
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20221110T141902Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T161134Z
UID:27475-1668211200-1673135999@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Guðmundur Thoroddsen: Kannski\, kannski
DESCRIPTION:
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/gudmundur-thoroddsen-kannski-kannski/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GTH0090-2048x1609-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220707
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220911
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20220803T174044Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220909T133221Z
UID:24495-1657152000-1662854399@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Drawings: Edda Jónsdóttir
DESCRIPTION:Edda Jónsdóttir (b. 1942) was born in Reykjavík were she studied at the Reykjavík School of Visual Arts\, The Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and later at Rijksakademie van Beelende Kunsted Amsterdam. She worked as an artist from 1975-1995\, then founded i8 Gallery and directed the gallery in the years 1995-2007 when she returned to making art. Her latest exhibitions were in Ásmundarsalur and Café Mokka in Reykjavik in 2021. It Is a special honour for Hverfisgallerí to organise Jónsdóttir’s exhibition as It was her vision that laid the foundations to the gallery a decade ago.
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/drawings-edda-jonsdottir/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
CATEGORIES:Exhibitions,Galleries
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/edda.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220430
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220703
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20220505T125855Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220831T160903Z
UID:23130-1651276800-1656806399@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Jeanine Cohen: Inner Space
DESCRIPTION:Jeanine Cohen is a Belgian artist who researches colour and form. With her three-dimensional wall works\, reliefs\, she explores the effects of colours and shapes on our spatial experiences. The space she is occupied with in her art is more specifically the inner space of the work itself\, an interplay of layers of wood and colours that create shadow-spaces within spaces\, within spaces. \nCohen’s works are independent units but their installing in the exhibition space creates a dialogue between them. They are sophisticated\, disciplined and the forms are stark and strong. Their scope of colour palette ranges from untreated wood to the principal colours and even neon. The colours are reflected by the white walls and within the work itself an inner world is formed where light and shadows create their own shapes. \nWe are reminded of the magnificent ability of the eye to transform rays of light into a meaningful perception of our environment. The works thus have an impact beyond the exhibition space and guide us in how we can further sharpen our visual perception of the wonders of the environment around us. \nIn the works of the exhibition\, all of which are among her most recent ones\, Cohen uses untreated wood as a basis for geometric structures that can be seen as references to painting\, a kind of fragmentation or deconstruction of traditional painting where the frame material is disassembled and painted on instead of a canvas. The painting thus does not show a picture\, the frame material forms an architectural\, minimalist space where colour surfaces meet and merge in light and shadow. \nThe space within the work is thus both obvious and mysterious. \nThroughout her career of over forty years\, Jeanine has engaged in such spatial explorations using the basic elements of the painting in the absence of recognizable imagery. There are sharp lines\, clear shapes and colour combinations that often range outside of those we are familiar with from painting history. Her works are of various dimensions\, often quite large\, in direct conversation with the architecture they are installed in\, and with the human body. In this exhibition\, however\, she presents smaller works\, which one might see as bust-size if they were portraits. \nBirta Guðjónsdóttir
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/jeanine-cohen-inner-space/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DSF7325-1060x795-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220312
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220424
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20220314T111445Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220423T095001Z
UID:22685-1647043200-1650758399@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Krot & Krass: Viðarverk
DESCRIPTION:In Krot & Krass’s first solo exhibition at Hverfisgallerí\, Viðarverk\, the artists exhibit new sculptures made from driftwood and concrete. In addition to the artworks\, Björn Loki (1991) and Elsa Jónsdóttir (1990) have also written a research paper which is published as a book work. In their work\, they focus on the morphology of language\, fonts\, words and references\, explore reading in the widest sense and examine the possibilities of communicating ideas and experience through complex systems of letters. \nRecently\, Krot & Krass have been preoccupied with head letters\, a font that first appeared in Icelandic carvings in the 16th century. Head letters can be hard to read and has been shrouded in mystery from the start. Krot & Krass emphasise the transformation of the environment and have created numerous works in public spaces in the last decade. In recent years they have cast their ideas in sculptures and reliefs. \n  \nCulture\, Salt and Toil \nAll of us come from the sea. We know the biology books drawings. Life originated in the ocean\, but at some point the fish crawled ashore\, slimy and scaly but also starving for coconuts and sunshine and other worldly goods. That’s how we came into being. We rolled upon the shore like a drunken man falling down a stair. And although it was a struggle\, it also feels quite fresh to step out of the waves with saltkissed skin. \nWhen you live on an island\, this is easy to see. The ocean is the foundation of all culture. We all came from the ocean\, or at least our forefathers did. Even the pigs in this country had to be shipped here. Everything travelled across the ocean. The alphabet\, Christianity\, monopolistic trade\, break dance\, yearning for sundried tomatoes. Everything washed upon the shore\, in various condition. Because the sea takes its toll. Nothing gets across it undamaged. Catholicism was washy on this remote island\, compared to the Vatican. Priests were allowed to get married\, they could also wield swords and kill\, or maybe they weren’t allowed to – but only the ocean was here to tell on them. The mainland also sent us the head letters\, the famous Gothic font which became the signature font of the printing age. Except here on the island\, the font was different. Some distortion happened on the voyage\, or maybe it was development. Depends on how you look at it. This has been studied by the art duo Krot og krass. \nHowever\, it’s not only ideas and people that has drifted ashore here\, but also various other supplies that have saved our lives. Allegedly\, driftwood is excellent for building houses\, and it has been used in numerous buildings here through the centuries. But maybe driftwood is only excellent material for those with no other options. It was either driftwood or no wood. It does have obvious qualities\, though. It has been tossed about in the sea\, breaking off gnarls and making it smooth. The sea separates the trunk from the twigs. It has also been said that the salt makes the wood last longer. Maybe we misheard that. But salt is ideal for preserving food\, and life is salted cod\, and in some ideological way it feels very patriotic to build your house from salted wood. Sitting in a house made of salted\, sea-tossed wood offers a sense of security. If the ocean didn’t destroy it\, the weather is not going to do much harm. \nEven so\, this is not the most fascinating thing about driftwood. That would be the drifting itself. The mysterious voyage. No one really knows how long the wood has been in the sea when it is cast ashore. There are no date stamps on the trunks. No certificates or receipts or QR-codes. Driftwood may be the only remaining completely random form of delivery in a world where everything is registered\, categorised\, measured and weighed. Look at them. The sea-worn\, carved logs in front of you. Imagine their lives. First decades in the woods\, maybe in Siberia\, maybe Alaska\, possibly so far into the wilderness that close by there were clandestine nuclear bomb experiments. At some point\, though\, they stopped being trees and became chopped down logs. That was their big trauma. Then the trip down the river\, or the road or the railway track\, because somehow they travelled down to the coast. Then the time in the ocean\, among ice\, walruses\, maggots and the power of God. Then the black\, Icelandic sand\, beneath the terns\, in the whistling\, salty wind. From there to the back of a truck. A US\, deliberately kitsch hotshot truck and into the studio of opinionated artists. There\, they were carved and washed and refined and placed in the gallery\, and you never know\, the next chapter could take place in the home of a hedge fund psychopath where people play jazz and decadent board games under a crescent moon. \nLook at them. They are logs\, salty lumps\, maybe they didn’t rise from the waves like a Bond girl but they are fresh and salty. Both washy and extremely dense. International\, yet patriotic. They are pieces of work\, woodwork\, timbered\, bedecked dudes you wouldn’t want to run into in the parking lot outside Stjörnubíó. But here we get a moment with them\, on our own terms\, get to smell them\, breath in history. \nBergur Ebbi \n  \nArtist duo Krot & Krass consists of members Björn Loki (b. 1991) and Elsa Jónsdóttir (b. 1990) who have been actively working together for a decade. The duo runs a 1200 m2 studio in Gufunes\, called FÚSK. They also co-own Skiltamálun Reykjavíkur which specialises in installing huge wall art for artists. Krot & Krass have taught at Iceland University of the Arts\, Flateyri Folk School and Breiðholt College\, and organised art and music festivals such as Buxur\, Happy Festival and Gambri\, Berlin.
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/krot-krass-vidarverk/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20211120
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220227
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20211122T153158Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220916T102206Z
UID:20277-1637366400-1645919999@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Hrafnkell Sigurðsson: Recondestruction
DESCRIPTION:“In a flash\, the debris had been arranged with unique\, artistic balance. Nature had crushed our lives into pieces but the artist had put them together again\, creating a kind of cairns\, or pillars\, memorials to the fragile reality of life\, elaborate monuments that looked like prototypes of explosions: Big Bang in its infancy\, before things went flying into space”. \nHallgrímur Helgason\, writer \n“The story behind the artwork is usually not very relevant; the artwork itself shows us all we need to understand it. Artworks\, though\, also tell stories. Hrafnkell has told us stories about what happens to our trash once we have taken it out to the bin. Now he reminds us that nature is not impressed by us putting up ski lodges in its path. In its eyes\, we are probably all just trash“. \nJón Proppé\, Art Historian  \nHRAFNKELL SIGURÐSSON (1969) was born in Reykjavík\, where he commenced his studies before proceeding in Maastricht\, before moving to London in the early nineties. He completed his MFA at Goldsmiths College in 2002. Sigurdsson has exhibited worldwide\, from Europe to East Asia\, Tasmania to the Louvre\, and he was granted the prestigious Icelandic Visual Art Award in 2007.
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/hrafnkell-sigurdsson-recondestruction/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/gif:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed.gif
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210925
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20211107
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20210923T101620Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220825T134354Z
UID:19285-1632528000-1636243199@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Perry Roberts: below / beyond
DESCRIPTION:Perry Roberts (1954) is a British artist who lives and works in Antwerp\, Belgium. His art and design has been presented widely in three continents\, in thirty solo exhibitions and over sixty group exhibitions as well as commissioned works in public space. His career spans forty years\, a period in which his art practice has covered a wide range of fields: abstract drawing and painting\, architectural interventions in public space\, text-based work\, murals and furniture design. His works have been presented in esteemed art institutions such as The Drawing Center in New York City\, Museum of Contemporary Art\, M HKA in Antwerp\, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and Whitechapel Art Gallery in London\, to name only a few.buy super avana online myhst.com/wp-content/themes/twentytwentytwo/inc/patterns/en/super-avana.html no prescription\n This is Perry Roberts´ first exhibition in Iceland. \nIn Hverfisgallerí\, Perry Roberts presents recent works on paper and paintings on linen and canvas. They are the result of a disciplined practice of abstraction and reduction as an explorative form of dialogue with architecture and painting traditions\, much inspired by Conceptualism and Minimalism of the late-1960s and 1970s. This influence is detectable in Roberts´ varying working methods and use of materials. His abstract works on paper generate an interplay of presence and absence\, positive space of colour and negative space of the exposed paper\, with titles referring to the excavation\, revealing\, processing and recording of archaeological remains. \nThe works on paper are installed in direct relation to the space\, laid out almost as a scroll\, a continuum to be read from left to right\, or right to left. They unfold a story without a clear narrative as do stratigraphic columns when they are carved out of earth\, before the strata of earthly matter deposited throughout geological time has been researched. \nRoberts has also designed furniture whose surfaces are covered with text\, which is often cut up and thus becomes an unreadable collage\, a method he has also referred to in titles of his paintings. \nText is central to Roberts´ work\, not least conceptually as titles. Some of his works are titled “Unfinished”\, referring to the Renaissance-era concept of the “Non finito”\, when many artists left their art works incomplete in order to achieve an unfinished effect\, which was seen as revealing the creative process. The excavated lines in the works on paper and the paintings lie on the golden ratio\, another reference to the era. \nPerry Roberts´ approach to using linen\, often in large-scale works\, as a material loaded with significant cultural references\, can be linked to his chosen home; the city of Antwerp\, capital of Flanders\, which has been the main production site worldwide of quality linen for painting as well as for tapestry since the late 14th century. \nRoberts´ canvases take on an added meaning when considering that they are made in this epicentre of art production in Post-Classical Europe.buy singulair online myhst.com/wp-content/themes/twentytwentytwo/inc/patterns/en/singulair.html no prescription\n He applies paint and gesso and sometimes sews different types of raw canvas and linen together. The linen-based works can thus at once be seen as paintings\, textile and even tapestry. Thin layering of paint refers to the strata in nature and to the underpainting process\, which exposes the “history” of the painting. The layers in a gradation of mostly blacks and whites are deeply absorbed by the unprimed linen – beyond its skin-like surface – as all earthly material is eventually absorbed below the surface of the earth. \nPerry Roberts (b.1954) was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK. He moved to Antwerp in 1995 where he lives and works. His works have been exhibited internationally including Gallery Sofie Van de Velde\, Antwerp and MHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp). His work is also held in many public\, private and corporate collections including The Arts Council of Great Britain\, The French National Art Collection and The Museum Abteiberg\, Monchengladbach\, Germany. Roberts is represented by Sofie Van de Velde gallery\, Belgium.
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/perry-roberts-below-beyond/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/perry-r.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210619
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210808
DTSTAMP:20260530T101848
CREATED:20210801T153655Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211021T112757Z
UID:18019-1624060800-1628380799@old.icelandicartcenter.is
SUMMARY:Hildur Bjarnadóttir: Abyss
DESCRIPTION:Abyss\n\n \n\nRhythm\, mimetic art\, and the cadence of the world in the weaving of Hildur Bjarnadóttir.\n\n \n\nWhen Hildur Bjarnadóttir began homesteading at Þúfugarður in the uncultivated marshlands of the Flói district\, some five years ago\, the surrounding native plants and level expanse of land and sea were the fuel of her art. That metabolic exchange of light\, soil\, and water is vividly apparent in her work\, or “woven paintings” as she calls them: wool and linen weaving in which earth’s juices are the wellspring of the colour while the form arises from the rigid network of the loom\, through a craft based on age-old tradition. Tradition is not\, however\, the only thing that Hildur means to show us through these rigid specifications; here tradition brings about an encounter with the present\, as nature and culture meet in a surprising dialogue with contemporary digital\, networked visual culture\, a dialogue concerning\, among other things\, what it means to show and to be. Hildur’s works are “paintings” in which the canvas is not a hidden platform for paint but a densely-woven web of linen or wool threads drenched in colour; the colour has been purged of all reference to anything other than the materiality of the weave itself\, a network that echoes the contemporary screen image’s pixel meshwork in a provocative way. Thus Hildur’s work has opened up a new understanding of painting as a medium of mind and hand\, culture and nature.\n\n \n\nThough the impetus for pioneering in Flói was for Hildur to commune with the local environment\, the prospect changed abruptly when she and her partner Ólafur S. Gíslason had the good fortune of welcoming twin daughters\, Urður and Salka: Life in Flóinn no longer revolved around communing with earth colours but around constant\, demanding care for these new Þúfugarðar settlers\, who relentlessly demanded breastmilk\, bodily contact\, company\, and conversation. What’s more\, the newborns’ staggered shifts of sleep and waking disrupted the whole cadence of time\, in what had otherwise seemed a timeless coexistence of day and night in the rural peace of Flói. The newborns’ onerous task of mastering the world upended life in Þúfugarðar and called for a new rhythm of existence. New work shifts and job rotations were inevitable\, and to simplify matters Hildur drafted a new pattern in her journals: Urður and Salka’s sleeping hours became an Excel sheet\, and as Hildur slowly began to find hours to sit at her loom\, earth colours no longer occupied her mind as before; now it was time\, Urður and Salka’s common or staggered nap times\, that engrossed her. In short\, the Excel sheet of the twins’ naps became a new framework\, not just for family work shifts but also for the loom\, as a new rhythm emerged in the weave: While the ground of the weave remains\, as before\, vertical yellow woollen threads drawing their colour from local flora\, now it contends with a dark-blue horizontal linen weft thread\, painted with acrylic paint; the sisters’ nap times determine whether this shuttle thread hides the background or vanishes into the tight wool-and-linen weave.\n\n \n\nThis new programme for the loom\, based on a fixed\, quantifiable rule\, revealed new patterns inscribed in the weave\, patterns that also acquired a rhythmic quality. Each day has its rhythm\, its pattern\, and the weave as a whole becomes a sort of calendar of time-based variations on a musical theme. When we view this rhythm\, the sisters’ sleep is far off; we neither see nor hear it. Rather\, we perceive it through this rhythm\, which is rooted in nature no less than the natural dyes are. What is it that we see? We see the rhythm as extent\, not sleep.\n\n \n\nWhat is rhythm? Rhythm is a time-based phenomenon having to do with repetition. First something happens; then it is repeated: 1+1+1… Therefore rhythm has to do with memory: Repetition entails recognizing that which is repeated\, such as sunrise and sunset. Thus rhythm also has to do with knowledge: We can never know the beginning buried in the origins of space and time; lacking any perceivable precedent\, it is both invisible and inexpressible. Repetition is the prerequisite of all knowledge. The black hole of the “Big Bang” is also a paradoxical metaphor\, within the established figurative language of science\, for something that existed before everything existed. There is no established model\, within time\, for the Big Bang; therefore it is a metaphysical\, mythic metaphor.\n\n \n\nRhythm is innate to humankind\, just as it is to so many natural phenomena: People are made with two feet and walk in rhythm; they are made with two hands and move them in tandem. They have two eyes and blink them in tandem\, and moreover have a heartbeat and rhythmic breathing. Humans have all this in common with most vertebrates\, with the tail-strokes of salmon as well as the wingbeats of birds. Yet there is one difference: Hens may cluck rhythmically\, but they don’t know Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. What is the difference?\n\n \n\nA honeybee’s rhythm is entirely within itself and the flower. The rhythm of art\, by contrast\, points beyond itself. It has to do with memory and meaning: a repetition of that which is gone forever. It is our image of time\, the past that is forever gone and the future that is always yet to come. A fabricated rhythm conveys both mourning and anticipation; it is an occurrence that makes us aware of the past\, allowing us to grasp it in its intangible absence. The rhythm of art happens on the boundary between what has been and what will be. It is an endless variation on the beginning. It ultimately contains the consciousness of death.\n\n \n\nThe rhythm in Hildur’s weaving is not confined to the variations of sleep and waking in her pattern. It is also inherent in the physical exertion at the loom itself: In a way the loom’s treadle and shuttle recall a pipe organ\, in coordinating hand and foot to create a weave that\, like the pattern itself\, indicates the cadence of the world that envelops our lives and existence. All peoples’ languages are rooted in the world’s rhythmicity\, which goes back to the beginning that lies beyond human understanding. Just as written language is rooted in song\, song is rooted in the primal cry that is beyond human understanding and which we can trace not only to our ancestors in the animal kingdom but all the way to the above-mentioned Big Bang that science tells us\, in its metaphor\, marks the beginning of the world. Mime and dance are rooted not only in the ritual invocations\, of weather gods or gods of the hunt\, of humankind’s effort to gain power over nature; they are rooted in the beginning that can only be grasped through repetition\, in the mythic image of the origin of the world.\n\n \n\nWe cannot look toward myths of the world’s origins otherwise than through the rhythm of nature; likewise\, we cannot look toward our own origins otherwise than through the miracle that happens in the womb when consciousness of rhythm arrives through the foetus’s perception of the mother’s heartbeat. The first beat is in darkness\, then it happens again; with that\, the world’s rhythm becomes part of our lives through the knowledge of what has come before and what is imminent. Human civilization arises when humanity learns to cultivate the imitation of rhythm to imbue human life with meaning\, a meaning not restricted to conceptual definitions but inextricably bound up in our intertwined bodily sensations – of the world’s cadence as reflected in\, for example\, our breath and heartbeat – and in our various intertwined modes of bodily expression\, sound and word\, image and gesture\, somnolence and wakefulness. We see not with our eyes or brain but with our whole body. Our perception of the world’s cadence is inextricably entwined with our bodies and our life\, apart from all the analytical sciences’ worthy attempts to reduce the world to its subatomic particles.\n\n \n\nIt was Urður\, Hildur and Ólafur’s daughter\, who gave the sleep pieces their name: The word ‘abyss’ was among her first attempts to connect sounds and language with objects through imitation. She heard her father use the word appelsína when handling oranges\, that desirable fruit known in many languages as a China apple\, or appel-Sina with the pertinent tonal variations. Urður knew nothing of these associations; rather\, she learned through her own insight that this strange sound had a mysterious connection to this sun-yellow fruit\, not just once but every time it came into view. Her control of her vocal cords was imperfect\, to be sure\, as she was not yet 12 months old\, but she perceived that these sounds pertained not only to one particular object but to all the fruits that bore this desirable scent and texture\, this clear yellow sun-colour\, and these sour-sweet delectations of the gustatory sense. She said\, “Abyss!” and her parents unhesitatingly knew it was the moment to break open the juicy flesh of the fruit. Urður\, for her part\, had yet to master the English tongue and thus had no idea of the profundity this sound would have conveyed\, had she been situated in an English-speaking society. Yet the abyss in question here confronts us all: namely\, the abyss between words and objects\, the abyss that separates language from objective reality\, not just in imitative sounds but in all bodily mimicry\, signals\, and imagery. This is also the abyss between sleep and waking\, the abyss between the world´s cadence and our image of that cadence. It is this abyss that gives Hildur Bjarnadóttir’s woven works the noble quality of humanity’s doomed striving toward the universal\, a striving that makes our imitative arts tragic and\, at the same time\, delightful.\n\n \n\nÓlafur Gíslason
URL:https://old.icelandicartcenter.is/exhibition/hildur-bjarnadottir-abyss/
LOCATION:Hverfisgallerí\, Hverfisgata 4\, Reykjavík\, 101\, Iceland
END:VEVENT
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