Residency

In September, 2019, I opened an exhibition at The Herhús and The Herring Era Museum/Síldarminjasafnið in Siglufjörður in northern Iceland. Titled how to notice what cannot be seen/að sjá það sem hulið er, the exhibition explores the incremental changes that galvanize radical shifts in our social and natural worlds and contends with the question of how change might be both witnessed and attended to. Change is elemental to the Fjallabyggð region of northern Iceland, where climate and geography shape the possibilities for domestic habitation and connectivity. Change is a pressurized activity that is activated through culture and politics. Change is also a measure of adaptability – a reach towards sustaining oneself and others in community; change is a story of endings and beginnings – it is the chance encounter, the inconstant moment.

The artists in this exhibition, whose practices are situated in northern Iceland and beyond, respond to the question of how to notice what cannot be seen. Their work asks us to contemplate how incremental change might be both perceived and mourned through aesthetic ways of knowing.

Participating Artists

Haraldur Ingi Haraldsson (Akureyri) studied history at the University of Iceland and art at the Reykjavík School of Arts and Crafts. He extended his art training at the AKI Akademie voor Beeldende Kunst and the Vrie Akademie Psycopolis in the Netherlands. He has participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Iceland and has worked on the promotion of art in Iceland in diverse ways.
Cod Head. Acrylic on graphic film. 2015 -2017.

Guðrún Þórisdóttir (Ólafsfjörður) graduated from Akureyri School of Visual Arts in 1994. Her work has been shown in several solo and group exhibitions over the years. She is a major dreamer and a boundless nature addict.
Skuggasveinar/Shadowboys. Sheep horn and wool. 2017-2019.

Björn Valdimarsson (Siglufjörður) is a self-taught photographer. He has exhibited his work in solo and group shows in Iceland and Switzerland, and his photographs have appeared in newspapers and magazines in Iceland, England, Germany and the United States. He has also published two photobooks: one that documents the Fólkið á Sigló and another that depicts ageing houses and other man-made things in the landscape in Northern Iceland.
Disappearance. Ink jet prints. 2014-2018.