National Gallery Exhibit and other thoughts

I thought I would write a bit more about the show at the National Gallery of Iceland which I attended yesterday. The show, entitled La Duree, is contemporary and features three artists : Emmanuelle Antille from Switzerland and Gabriela Fridriksdottir and Gudny Rosa Ingimarsdottir , both from Iceland.  The introduction to the exhibit explains that "La Duree is an attempt to bring two major Icelandic artists in conjunction with a foreign one, and thus modify the common habit which segregates the parties from each other." An interesting mix to be sure..

The exhibit opens with two galleries of work by Antille. The first introduction is through large scale photographs, trans-mounted to acrylic and pseudo documentary in style. These works initially piqued my curiosity and held my attention with their play between fiction and reality. The opening didactic mentions a reference to a criminal case in the U.S. in which 3 teenagers were convicted of murdering a fourth teenager. The narrative of the photographs, and subsequent video pieces, is built on the idea of an almost adult-less teenage- owned society. The habitations are abandoned motels and other buildings, parking lots, and the spaces beneath overpasses and bridges. A typical no man's land which is often taken up by those too young to get into bars and too old to want to spend time at their parent's houses. The video work is presented in two spaces- a small room enclosed within the photography exhibit and a large galleria across the hall. Both videos are comprised of a multitude of screens cutting between various points in the same story or film. Imagery of a tornado about to hit the ground seems to reference the ominous feeling evident in the photography and the additional scenes in the film.  The feeling is that there is a tenuous relationship to a system of rules within the society and in general, uneasiness permeates the work, though the images themselves are lusciously beautiful and eden-like. In the catalogue, Harm Lux writes "We adopt a language , codes, symbols and other systems of signification from the world around us: It is then our task to find out how to deploy and use these systems. " On a personal level, I was definitely loving the landscape of abandoned motels and structures and was inspired to see them activated through a narrative that steps away from the rundown as evidence of the past and instead presents the environment in a present, displaced state.

The second floor begins with work my Gabriela Fridriksdottir. Fridriksdottir is represented by i8 gallery in Reykjavik and is displaying two videos and a series of drawings and sculpture works. Sadly, one of the videos didn't seem to work, but the one that did was surreal and evocative. There was a connection to the landscape and storytelling in a nonlinear way. The imagery moved from a man with a painted face on a beach alongside a woman shrouded in seaweed spitting black rocks into a pile, to a couple of primitive characters gnawing on what looked to be raw bones (people from the recent trip to Skaha will no doubt be reminded of our  lamb leg feast at Water World!). The sculptures were slightly grotesque forms that combined displaced body parts, almost recognizable but hovering at the edge of reality and the surreal. The drawings followed suit in a deliciously macabre parade of submarine/subterranean forms and beasts. I loved it.

The second artist from Iceland, Ingimarsdottir, presented a series of work with the recurring motifs of honeycombs, semi-medical looking drawings of the inner workings of lungs, carved patterns extricated from wallpaper and multilayered semi translucent paintings that invited a closer inspection and were strong enough to hold you close. It struck me as the type of work that would suffer from being photographed and is best seen live, up close and in person. This may have been my favourite work from the entire show.

All in all, I was very happy to have visited the gallery. The woman who worked at the front desk, when asked about the permanent collection, went on a tirade about how there should be more historical works shown in the museum. I suppose this is a common theme throughout the world : many artists and not enough places to show them. In terms of the work I did see I thought it was a wonderful introduction to the artistic talent in Iceland. Tomorrow I will check out the Reykjavik Art Museum and meet up with one of my Icelandic relatives which is very exciting. 

I have been out shooting in and around Reykjavik, but if feels like more of a warm up: sketches before the big drawing. I am really excited to expand and see the countryside around the city and more specifically, the region where a majority of my ancestors migrated from over a 100 years ago. Lots of time to think and meditate. I've been reflecting on the fact that it's nice to slow down a bit ...I could get use to this.

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