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.