Open House - Opið Hús

   Usually at the end of a residency period here at Listhus there is an "open house" - almost like a cross between an open studio and a curated exhibition.

   Almost at the beginning of our time as a group here we discussed collaborating on a participatory intervention or performance as part of this.

   Using the opportunity to work in an almost spontaneous way to engage with the community and raise questions about art in a humorous way.

   Please Wait to be Seated was a "walk-thru" portrait factory facilitated by our collective which we named The Serendipitous Sisterhood. Menus were collected on arrival, choices were made (line drawings, water colour for example) and participants could choose payment method - sing the national anthem, teach an Icelandic word and so on. Raising questions about exchange value, ownership, authorship, commissioning were all there but lightened by our carefree manner, costumes and showtime element.

Example with menu

   Participants would then be photographed with their portrait which they took with them, both photograph and portrait record and memory of the event. 

Happy customers

   An enjoyable was to spend an evening creating art, interacting with the locals - it is the first real engagement we have had - it is unfortunate it has come near the end of my time here. (Although admittedly I could have initiated something beforehand). Getting to know an area or a town is not just about places and landmarks or where the supermarket is but the people who make it. 

   Reflecting on this, an idea for the future which would be great to be involved in would be to create a longer term project within a community where the participants are not just invited to be part of one event but are part of the development and shaping of the event and have ownership and are part of a collaborative project.

Promotional material

And top picture, our beautiful sign by Lee Wansool, in English, Icelandic and Korean.

Same all over

    William Morris, reflecting on a visit to Iceland 1871/72  - "Watching the fowls [sic] scratching about, felt a queer feeling something akin to disappointment of how like the world was all over after all."

     Nearing the conclusion of this time on residency, reflecting on the change you go from being a foreigner, an outsider - you are unsure of the surroundings, bereft of local knowledge - to then being part of a community, having routines, places you tend to go, things you tend to see. This integration of course takes a lot longer than merely a month but small things can fall in to place in this time - the feeling of having your space (physical/mental), your way of existing in this new environment  - things which were new, unfamiliar and novelty became routine, usual and sometimes banal. Being comfortable in your surroundings can sometimes take a while and each person is different. But it is true that you do begin to notice that people and things are not so different after all.

    Not to take away from the many unique things you can encounter in Iceland, but that almost in a comforting way things are like or similar all over. We can adapt quite easily and quickly to an established routine almost without knowing it.

    I'll be glad to return to my "old" routine - but with a fresh viewpoint. I enjoy the perspective changing and novelty of return that travel and extended stays bring.

One of the unique things - crater things

Quote from Roni Horn - Library of Water, Adrian Searle p.36

Weather (again)

"The intensity of the ever-changing light and the inescapable presentness of the weather."

Reading more of Roni Horn and feeling ones actions dictated by weather.

 "The weather rules all around as well as deep inside".

However, a sense of not wanting to be at the mercy of it - not bad weather, only inappropriate clothing we say in Scotland - but the weather is not the same there. Reading stories of people´s weather experiences in Weather Reports You. I have never felt scared or threatened by the weather or particularly by the sea, but yesterday I climbed down a steep incline to get next to the sea, to be on the beach. But the waves were incredibly powerful, had such a sense of their own rhythm - I scared myself and scrambled up back to the road and sat and looked back down, it seeming much more calm than when close up. All the stories of people being lost at sea and suddenly caught in storms and crazy weather have given me more respect for these things out with our control.

On a calmer day.


Quotes taken from : Library of Water - Roni Horn
p 16, James Lingwood, p 93, Margrét Blöndal.

Books and shadows

Working on a series of small books - developing the drawings of shadows on the mountains.

Individual drawings in concertina form then made into folded book with cover.

Weather

It´s appropriate to talk about the weather. Since being here the weather has been quite good with mostly fair days and little rain. That changed today with a forecast of gales and precipitation. Planning on a longer run, I cut that short to half an hour, being simultaneously pushed about by the gusts and battered in the face by hail, it was a little more that I had expected.
A friend from 2|1|4|1 had suggested that I take a look at the artist Roni Horn as she has spent a great deal of time here in Iceland and it has been a great influence in her work. I am reading her volume Weather Reports You - collections of weather reports and stories from an area in Iceland. Everyone talks about the weather, it is common small talk for many people. Just how the weather effects our lives is maybe not measurable but visible. More so in a place like this. Reports of extreme weather amaze and mystify whilst the day to day reality of living somewhere where your everyday activities either rely or are dependant on the weather can change your outlook and ultimately your life and how you live it.
The weather can change in an instant here and people seem to be prepared and accepting of a force greater than themselves. They have a fantastic weather service which has a lot of detail and I have checked this frequently since I got here. But until today I feel as if I hadn't really experienced the weather - but although it is not pleasant to run into the wind and hail and wet, it is a refreshing reminder of the power of nature and of how some things in life we have no control over.
To accept the weather as part of the identity of the location you live in and learning to live with it and by it - is maybe like accepting it as part of your own identity, such that it changes you and is reflected in the actions and things you pursue.

Rounding up sheep and presentations

Being in Iceland in September means you miss the majority of festivals and things which happen in the towns and villages - most things are in the short summer period. However, in Ólafsfjördur, yesterday they had a "sheep rounding up" event for the whole village. This is basically to get everyone involved with getting the sheet down from the fields to a central area and then to identify and divide the sheep so that they can be taken by their owners and kept closer to their farms. Children allowed out of school and everyone around in a generally jolly mood which included a stampede of people and sheep to get them into their holding pen.

Later on, we had planned small informal presentations of the artists present in the Listhús. I had thought this would be a good idea to find out what everyone else was doing and their background - so we all agreed to participate and invited Alice, who is in charge of the running of the residency, accompanied by her partner Siggy and another artist staying in the village. I had long wanted to try out a presentation of my work in the "Pechakucha" style, more info.. This is basically a format for presenting of having 20 images and 20 seconds to talk about each. It takes a bit of preparation but I enjoyed this and found it useful for being concise and getting to the point in talking about my work and intentions. It was engaging to hear the things behind the other artists´ practice and what background they had. Check out their websites through the Listhús website here.

With just over 2 weeks left here time is passing quickly but with enough time left to make progress in what I am working on.

Akureyri

Today an expensive trip to the capital of the North, Akureyri. A small town of just over 17,000, also has its history in the fishing industry, having a good natural harbour and better weather giving it an ice-free port. I asked the caretaker of the house we are staying in yesterday about the snow they get in the winter - he replied that once, the front door was closed due to a snow drift from November to April. So I suppose an ice-free port is a real bonus.

Up to the mountains

Yesterday I took a trip running up a trail in the mountains which surround Ólafsfjördur. Our close proximity to the mountains make them appear smaller than they indeed are; some of them reach over 1000 m in height.With only the odd sheep for company and no one else in sight, I climbed up and up to reach a small lake, after which the path become unclear as there was a fair bit of snow and ice up there. I am fascinated by the way snow and ice lies on the various land forms and how the colour changes subtly in the different light. The mountains and their shadows too are constantly changing and appear rich in colour ranging from almost neon greens to deep purples and browns.

Siglufjördur

Today was a short trip on the free bus to the larger town, Siglufjördur, which merged with Ólafsfjördur to create the joint municipality of Fjallabyggö. The bus goes through another long tunnel, which was only opened in 2010, to arrive into the town.
It has less than half of its peak number of inhabitants, which has been decreasing since the 50´s. It has the look and feel of a place worn down but seems to have more to attract tourists than Ólafsfjördur.

The mountains like that of Ólafsfjördur, have this colour from green to purple and blue contrasted by the white of the snow.

Remnants

First Impressions

Small scale drawings made from first impressions.

Ólafsfjördur

It brightened up today, and I was able to see my surroundings and take in the landscape - arriving in the overcast wet and dark last night was a contrast to today, which gave the feeling of having been transported as if suddenly into this place, although I had fully experienced the journey here.

Ólafsfjördur is quite a small town, with a population of around 800. It is simple in that there is one of everything or not at all. If you can´t find what you need in the supermarket, you do without. Walking around the town, the sense of contrast is echoed in the way it seems as if the town is placed in its location, right up in front of the mountains behind it - the colours of the houses stark and sharp against the dark green solid mass.

Ski - jump

Iceland - residency

A few days after arriving in Reykjavik, I took the journey up to Ólafsfjordur in the North of Iceland.

I will be here until the end of September staying at the Listhús. http://www.listhus.com/

The first few days spent taking in the tourist sights from a tour of the "Golden Circle" - an easily accessible tour of some of the major sights near the Reykjavik area. A visit to a geo-thermal plant above.

Mining in a crater.

Signs

Pure, clear, Icelandic water from near the fault line of the meeting of the North American and Eurasian Plates.

The journey up to Ólafsfjördur in the north involved taking a flight to Ayureyri first. Although the flight was due to leave at 5:30pm, people were still checking in moments before - so laid back, although luckily for them the flight was delayed. There has been some unseasonably bad weather in Iceland over the last few days with storms and fresh snow already.
After arriving, a short journey into the centre of Akureyri from the airport, to catch the last of 3 daily buses up to Ólafsfjördur. I was the only passenger on this 45 min bus ride which took us through a tunnel called Múlagöng. Similar to something out of a film set, this is a single lane tunnel which has small passing places to make way for traffic in the other direction. It is only 640m long, but feels like twice as much until you emerge on the other side, just above Ólafsfjördur.
With everything misty and wet from the rain, there was little chance to see my new surroundings for this month, but by the next morning things had cleared up to get a better idea of the area around my home from home.