0:00

all right hello everyone um welcome to this aga live um my name is

0:08

lindsay sharman i am the curator of the art gallery of alberta i’m very excited to be hearing today

0:15

from the icelandic artist rafnilde arnardottier

0:20

or also known as shoplifter who is currently in an exhibition at the aga

0:25

called roy g biv the exhibition is all about color and the power of color and how it can

0:32

shape us and our public and private spaces the show is up now and runs until

0:39

january 2nd the aga and i are situated on treaty 6 territory we are also in edmonton uh the

0:48

traditional land of diverse indigenous peoples including the cree blackfoot

0:53

metis nakota sioux iroquois

1:01

i’d also like to acknowledge all of the indigenous inuit and metis people who make their homes on

1:08

territories that now intersect the current borders of alberta

1:13

i have a lot of connections to various places within treaty six um but my great

1:19

great grandmother came to edmonton in 1896 just 20 years after the signing of

1:24

treaty 7 or 2d6 sorry and although i am not from edmonton nor

1:31

are my parents or my grandparents when my great-great-grandmother arrived here

1:36

from what was then russia she lived in a home just a few blocks east from where i’m sitting right

1:42

now so shoplifter is joining us from denmark although she is from iceland

1:49

and is one of iceland’s leading contemporary artists she works with both synthetic and

1:54

natural hair her sculptures wall murals and site-specific installations explore

2:00

themes of vanity self-image uh fashion beauty and popular myth

2:07

for shoplifter hair is the ultimate thread that grows from our bodies hair is an original creative fiber a way

2:15

for people to distinguish themselves as individuals and humor also plays a large

2:20

role in both her life and work shoplifter represented iceland at the

2:27

venice biennial in 2019 and her installation homo sapiens

2:33

which with her installation chromo sapiens which received worldwide attention and

2:39

press chromo sapiens later traveled to iceland opening at the reykjavik art museum in

2:45

january 2020 and i believe is now permanently installed in reykjavik

2:52

shoplifter has exhibited in notable museums and galleries worldwide including moma new york

2:59

national gallery of finland national gallery of iceland the walt disney concert hall in la uh queensland art

3:07

gallery of modern art in australia among many many many others

3:12

she is the recipient of the nordic award in textiles and the prince eugene medal for artistic

3:20

achievement from the king and royal crown of sweden

3:25

so before we get into it i’d like to thank some of our sponsors uh thank you

3:30

to both epcor and kennedy council for their generous support uh our online

3:36

programming is brought to you because of the general support of the up for heart and soul fund and also thank you to

3:43

helen and michael um who are here behind the scenes with us helping out today

3:49

um so for our event today i’m going to hand it over to shoplifter in just a moment um she’s going to share

3:56

some images of the work and talk a little bit about her practice in general

4:02

and show some projects and then towards the end um i’ll come back on with some questions for her and i’ll also uh share

4:09

questions that come from our audience so if you have um any questions like you’d

4:15

like to ask your way of interacting with us is through the q and a function

4:22

um so with that um sharpie i will hand it over to you if you’re ready to

4:28

go sure hi everyone um thank you so much for

4:34

inviting me um to give an artist talk i’m really happy to

4:40

be in the exhibition i wish i could have come to see it but i guess that

4:46

you know i’ll have to wait to another time to come to alberta um i’m currently in

4:52

arrows in denmark uh installing a show here at the arrows museum

4:59

and um yeah um my name is dr artner

5:05

it’s a very normal icelandic name but when i moved to new york

5:12

25 years ago somebody misheard it you know it was hopeless for them to pronounce it and somebody said nice to

5:18

meet you shoplifter got back to me and me being the hopeless uh humorist i

5:25

thought it was hilarious you know i’m not a shoplifter i will i want to make that clear

5:31

and um so i just kind of went with it and before i knew it it became my um

5:38

my official name you know artist name so i’m born in iceland reykjavik

5:44

um and went to the art university in iceland

5:50

studied painting graduated in 89 yeah

5:56

yeah 89 and uh and then uh

6:01

you know i was in the painting department and i was always kind of like uh you know it’s like i wanted to go abroad and um study do my mfa

6:08

and when i was thinking about where to go i thought of new europe or i thought of new york which i’ve been to

6:14

you know i had been there for a graduation project my graduation trip so when i pictured myself

6:22

in europe i always saw it in black and white and then i saw it in color if i thought of myself in new york so i guess

6:28

i went with the color but color took a while to get into my artwork nevertheless

6:33

um so here we have um an image

6:38

from my first solo exhibition in new york i graduated from the school of visual

6:45

arts in 96 and for the next years you know i would

6:50

experiment with a lot of different materials but it was not until i found these uh hair extensions and hair

6:57

that i started like really like kind of finding my you know voice as an artist i think you know i come from

7:04

the nordic tradition of textiles and and um sewing and knitting and and things like

7:11

that and uh it’s also i was kind of like dealing also with my

7:16

own prejudice and towards you know these kind of female-driven craft uh creative

7:21

processes and uh wanted to kind of tackle that

7:27

and the painting didn’t feel uh enough for me so i think

7:32

that uh you know i stumbled upon you know such a great medium for me you know

7:38

and here we have a solo exhibition in new york called the left brain right brain

7:43

and i took some braids you know and started like kind of like adding them to the

7:48

wall creating these kind of maps mind maps and for the opening i dressed myself up you know a lot of my work is

7:54

also quite performative and uh fashion oriented

8:00

and from this uh we could uh show up another slide

8:07

um and the work started to kind of like become denser and denser and this is a artwork called the right

8:15

brain so in the beginning i was just kind of like adding like one-on-one braid on it

8:20

but i kind of want to explain a little bit about you know why hair became such

8:25

a dominant material in my career i think that you know it’s just

8:31

the estimate uh creative medium you know that grows on our body it’s like

8:36

represents so much uh who we are i’m really into you know

8:42

identity and uh you know the way we choose to present ourselves with hairstyles and

8:48

and all kinds of uh um you know you know we all have to make creative decisions when it comes to like

8:54

you know doing something with our hair so i think it brings out some creativeness in all of us

8:59

and we’re very occupied by it and so in addressing you know

9:06

it’s like figurative but not the material is figurative or like uh connecting to the

9:12

people and um and i’m really curious about vanity and uh

9:18

pop culture and after my first solo show um we can show the next slide

9:24

um i was very glad because uh um my fellow

9:29

icelander bjerg came to the show and i was working on a album called medulla

9:36

and she asked me to create the persona for this album that

9:42

was only recorded with human voices so it felt right to her that she wouldn’t be wearing anything but

9:49

some you know um you know like the hair was uh like a

9:56

sculptural body material so she asked me to create something for her to be wearing on on the on the album and here

10:03

you can see also uh the flowers uh that are made from human hair and also from horse hair and

10:10

then these like hair pieces that i created this kind of still life flower painting to me it is

10:18

um i think that when i was if i go back you know to like

10:23

why i’m using hair i think that you know the first why i started using braids you know my

10:29

my grandmother would have like a drawer in her vanity cabinet in her bathroom

10:34

and i would go there as a seven-year-old you know just tiptoe into there and open the drawer and see her cut off braid in the drawer

10:42

and i just found it so mesmerizing it stirred so many like crazy like weird you know feeling in me

10:48

both like this eerie feeling of uh that limb uh but also like something very

10:55

romantic and also a monument to her youth because she had gray hair but the braid was brown

11:01

and i think it had a really strong effect on me and i didn’t realize until later in life when i was working with hair so much in my work you know i

11:07

suddenly started realizing the stepping stones you know that bring it to a place of where you

11:13

how you pick material and i also was working in an antique shop and that’s where i first came

11:19

across these memory flowers this is an old tradition dating back to the 1600s

11:25

both very popular in america and also in this continent especially sweden

11:30

and i found a woman who still knows how to um do this it’s a very like you know

11:36

specific technique that you have to learn and usually it’s taught from mother to daughter

11:41

so i started kind of sculpting more and we can see the next slide

11:50

and i started like seeing the drawing within the hair you know the

11:55

drawing that can be created and uh the three-dimensionality and

12:01

doing these three leaves this is called the star and i started creating these

12:06

um planets of sorts in different colors with different braids and to me the

12:11

paintings you know i finally like figured out that yeah okay i’m just doing paintings you

12:16

know even though i’m not painting with paint but um

12:22

i kind of worm them around and you know they all they become these kind of um

12:27

yeah like these surfaces that are very like kind of animalistic and um you know beastly but tame we’re always trying to

12:34

tame the hair that we have on our body next one please

12:41

and after doing all these like brown you know works i was really um connected to

12:46

just wanting to talk about the humans you know like natural hair colors and it took me a

12:52

while to put all my colorfulness into my work and it happened when i did a collaboration

12:59

in a window at moma at the modern museum of modern art in new york i did a

13:06

collaboration with assume vivid astro focus a art collective

13:11

that’s mostly run by um brazilian artists

13:17

and we together did this installation that was this huge windows the first time

13:24

they had this in the window there was a series you know and it was supposed to be up for six months and i

13:29

think it was up for 14 or something like that and you can see on the next picture uh

13:36

another close-up so basically these are like blinking um neon lights that uh assume that astro

13:43

focus created and then i had i braided all these different color

13:49

combinations and uh then i you know fastened them to a surface uh

13:55

to create this kind of flow of color and and uh you know um

14:01

and suddenly i was back in painting like full-on painting

14:07

um this is a great stepping stone in my career i have to say um it was uh um

14:13

it’s kind of interesting how that happens you know that you know that

14:18

you get a gig like that that is really um kind of brings you to a new place in

14:23

your work and uh gives you like a certain confidence to continue when you have like all this positive feedback

14:30

and we can see the next slide i also use human hair

14:36

and this is made from colored human hair extensions

14:42

and i buy them in these colors i don’t color anything myself i like working with sound objects and uh

14:49

kind of taking it out of its context and putting it into the art context and giving it another purpose and another

14:57

life and i wanted to create here um

15:02

this uh kind of abstract uh x you know it’s like um

15:08

geometric abstraction uh and it almost looks like uh um graffiti or drip paint

15:16

and uh it has the illusion of three dimensionality and the part of it is coming out of the wall and part of it is

15:23

just on the wall but it looks like it’s coming out of the wall and um i think that

15:28

i’ve been joking about it that i can blame you know i blame boyd george from the culture club for all this

15:34

uh artwork that i do because uh when i in the 80s i would always have these like kind of

15:39

outlandish hairdos but i couldn’t get any hairdresser and reykjavik to to give me the

15:45

same hair to us boy george and so i think this unfulfilled

15:51

desire to have hair extensions that i didn’t even know what was back then um that is to blame for a lot of my work

16:00

but i really enjoy putting the colors together it’s a composition and drawing and three-dimensional kind

16:06

of sculpture painting and this one is called the vanity

16:12

disorder and then from these kind of work i started

16:19

i continued using synthetic hair mostly because

16:24

um i started wanting to kind of fill up your your spatial visual

16:30

area in all these colors you know the way it affects you is very um

16:37

you know it did yeah i really read a lot about neuroscience and i think that uh

16:44

you know i always started thinking like okay yes like the map of the brain you know the hair you know this idea that you know the hair is an extension like

16:51

of your thoughts you know you get kind of outgrown thoughts uh my imagine you know

16:57

thing and then i i was uh reading a lot about neuroscience and

17:03

i started doing these installations called the nervescape that were more like um landscapes and you can go to the

17:10

next slide i think that uh no no that is something else that i

17:16

uh okay so i go back to that later no no it’s okay it’s okay

17:23

i’ll just talk about the smileys um i also figured out how to um control the hair you know it’s always

17:29

about pain taming the hair first i was braiding it and then i was braiding it bigger and using this more kind of like

17:36

cheapest um hair extensions and then um because i was working in fashion also

17:42

and like kind of doing finale pieces for for a fashion designer i had to create some sort of like uh

17:48

fabric that would have be here and so i figured out how to like pluck the hair with a tiny crochet nail through

17:55

netting and then you know i started realizing that i can do so much more you know um literal uh painting

18:02

with the hair and i’ve done like a series of these uh fuzzy smileys this one is called bloody

18:08

smile and um the red was supposed to be like um

18:13

lipstick but it’s kind of like a little bit more like blot i guess hence the name

18:19

and the next one and here you can see at the ba it’s in

18:24

our studio it’s the back of these smileys and this is basically two tones of hair like planted together

18:31

um put under the nest and and then plucked through and on the other side is like the festy part

18:37

and so i throw it off you know every single time it’s not like a like a standardized

18:42

smile so they all become very different i have to kind of give them a haircut so they’re like characters and i think that my work is a

18:49

lot about characters and uh this kind of like brought me like showed more like the the humorous side

18:57

of myself that this is like a little bit like tating oriya this like very popular scandinavian um 70s uh

19:04

tapestry that uh every single home had you know owls and

19:11

sunflower sunflowers and and things like that and next one

19:17

and uh here’s a pink one so they become like this um this series and uh

19:25

and you know here because my work is so much about pop culture vanity and human behavior

19:32

and i think that um first of all when i did the bjork album it was uh fantastic to kind of

19:41

do a human hair sculpture on a person in this pop culture

19:50

you know uh universe and um so basically um

19:56

my work really dances on this kind of textile pop culture and it’s uh oftentimes

20:02

uh not about you know the preciousness of textile make making textile artwork but i use uh you know my attitude this

20:11

more kind of you know punk or macho you know your stable gun and glue gun and and

20:16

sometimes also just uh these like really tiny um ways of manipulating the the

20:21

fibers but it is fiber art and um and i’m just fascinated with

20:29

the mass production of materials or and things in the in the world

20:35

and i like to kind of use found objects because of that like you know the hair extensions are found

20:42

then they’re not colored by me they are you know i just find different colors and i figure out a way to kind of blend

20:48

it and make it do what i wanted to do and uh and i always like recycle everything you

20:55

know i make artwork out of almost every single strand of hair but maybe not exactly but

21:02

i try but because i started making really large scale installations

21:07

i could show you the next slide this was uh um

21:14

yeah like after the smileys i started doing these more planets you know that i call um like almost like nebulas

21:21

and this is where i really figured out how to like start blending the hair into

21:26

paintings like like just like blending paint and uh yeah these are comets uh

21:34

also comets moons and uh planets and uh i found out that the greek the

21:41

the word comet comes from greek and it means long-haired it’s actually like

21:47

a fantastic name and the next one

21:53

so here i went full on into the um three-dimensional landscape uh the first

21:59

installation i did in this uh series called nervescape was at the clocktower gallery in new york uh alanna

22:07

heiss curator and founder of the clocktower gallery and ps1 she was the first one to

22:13

invite me to do this large-scale installation after she saw the moma window artwork so that was like

22:20

that really like propelled me into this like large-scale installation artwork

22:27

and even though i do that i also just do very tiny after you know from just

22:34

a little bundle you know small bundle of hair but um here we are in australia um it’s over

22:41

like 500 square meters of uh surface uh filled with hair

22:48

on three and we can show the next slide it was uh it’s it went up like three

22:54

floors and um i just wanted to create this uh um

23:01

fantastical uh cartoony landscape almost like walking into your

23:08

kind of children book or you know just just be lost in another world you know

23:14

and um transport the viewer um from some

23:20

you know from the mundane you know into this uh um supernatural hyper nature psychedelic uh

23:27

surfaces uh and uh scale that uh disturbs your own scale you know you

23:34

it’s almost like you feel uh when you’re in front of this work you

23:40

you you feel very that your own scale is kind of like um a skewed because um you’re not used to

23:47

seeing hair and such quantity and you know and and surface so um it’s very trippy to look at too so

23:55

uh it’s a way to um yeah make a trip without any

24:02

drugs now we can go to the next one

24:09

and uh the nervescape series uh started taking on all kinds of shapes and uh um

24:14

they moved from the wall to the uh into space and i started uh um

24:21

using the hair to create these uh strands and

24:27

almost like a like a vap or like a like a

24:32

systems like veins and uh um all these like organic

24:38

shapes that are so parallel from the microscopic to the microscopic to the you know to the galactic

24:43

and um using these colors i’m really just painting three-dimensionally and drawing

24:50

in space and um and there’s something about creating a

24:56

space you know that is so immersive mostly it’s like you know it really like

25:02

affects your senses and um and after like working with these uh

25:08

nervescape installations uh i made up this name nervescape it’s like made from

25:13

uh ner endings and landscape or escape so it’s about you know escaping into

25:20

another um like like a book or or sci-fi movie or

25:26

another um dimension and it’s very psychedelic and uh

25:32

it has a really like positive effect on me to work with these colors

25:38

and i felt like uh you know the hair the texture also um

25:44

affects your emotion as well because we are also used to our own hair and uh so we identify with the texture

25:52

but it is also interesting to see um you know there’s there’s like some gray

25:58

area where you know beauty and uh um and uh

26:04

disgust me you know because a lot of us you know like you know when the body is on our body it’s beautiful and it’s

26:11

pride and joy but once it’s off the body it’s kind of repulsive and so

26:16

it is uh very kind of beastly and but it’s also because of the colors reminds us of

26:22

teddy bears and stuffed animals and and so i wanted to create these like

26:27

three dimensional painting but you could never like see it all in one from one

26:33

angle and um and these kind of strands of hair you

26:38

know i figured that you know like the colors they kind of you know penetrate your retina and uh

26:45

activate uh the neurons in your brain and uh and then i

26:51

later read that i’m actually scientifically completely right you know it’s i’m just a realist

26:58

um that it actually affects the brain in a way the colors that um

27:05

but the nerve endings start to pump out these feel good uh um uh

27:10

g i mean what do you call it like the the ox you know serotonin and uh and all of these feel

27:17

good um uh i’m looking for a word second language is men

27:23

uh yeah um so basically like start to pump your brain with these feel good uh um

27:30

feelings and uh um so it affects you in a way that makes you kind of like

27:36

forget about other things and this is very meditative to look at

27:41

and next one these are called fathoms uh

27:49

so i started making these uh just singular um compositions of uh site-specific

27:55

installations from these uh long strands of um hair columns uh kind of like floating

28:02

trees or sculptures in space and um where mix the colors uh um

28:10

together to create this kind of cartoony and

28:16

pop paintings that are three-dimensional

28:22

and next one and that brings us to um

28:29

the show uh at the museum uh where when uh

28:34

i was offered to exhibit you know um in this room i soon realized that uh i would like to

28:40

create this kind of labyrinth of uh fathoms that

28:46

that um you know kind of like trigger your senses and um you kind of roam around

28:54

and you’re just like like it’s also almost like going you know through um you know like a

29:00

car wash or or something like that um but uh

29:06

they really like uh um yeah i wanted this like this uh square

29:12

like when you come to this show that this uh entrance into the

29:17

installation becomes its own painting we’re always talking about paintings um

29:24

like you know being a window into another world or into the you know

29:29

mind of the of the painter and here you can actually step into the painting and

29:34

be one with it and um it’s a very kind of meditative uh um

29:40

place to walk through and i specifically um also for the first time kind of managed

29:47

to use carpet to for the floor and the walls and it just

29:54

kind of makes makes for like this complete textile experience

30:00

that you are like in this soft fuzzy place you know with um and the sound it

30:07

also affects the sound so like you know it uh um it diffuses it so that uh

30:14

it is uh womb-like maybe i don’t know and um

30:20

and yeah and it’s a painting once and for this yeah painting like paint brushes

30:27

and the next one

30:33

yeah and here you see like how it can no matter like where you are you know

30:39

you always see a new combination of colors and so you can move through it

30:44

and uh you will never repeat your mind your eyes will never really

30:50

see the same painting so it’s like flashes of color that um

30:58

it’s really energizing i think yeah and then uh i think i had some

31:06

images from uh the venice panel

31:11

oh no lindsey

31:17

oh helen do we have more images

31:27

okay yeah that’s okay

31:33

yeah so basically you know that’s that’s uh you know um what i wanted to

31:40

tell you about more or less you know i mean yeah do you have any

31:45

did you want to you know maybe just talk us through um the venice installation a little bit

31:52

yes um so uh when i was selected to represent iceland at the venezuelan island and

31:59

2019 i wanted to really like for the first time create this 360 degree uh

32:05

environment with uh sound as well so it would become like this multi-sensory uh experience and the work

32:13

i named it the chromo sapiens so i’m basically kind of in that piece i’m naming the viewer more than the

32:20

artwork really because you kind of enter as homo sapiens but you leave us chromo sapiens with a higher

32:28

color wisdom you know so that’s why i was also so happy to be in this show it’s all about color

32:33

because uh i it’s very important uh in my life you know and

32:38

it does um really affect people in positive ways usually um

32:45

you know the well-being and mental state so i’m really into that because from coming from iceland you know growing up

32:51

in all this darkness you know we have the seasonal affective disorder and there’s light therapy for

32:57

that but i think that color can also be very therapeutic and uh you know green and

33:03

blue and you know these like typical kind of nature colors

33:09

they they affect the brain you know the brain starts to you know

33:14

make this feel good uh um chemicals in the brain and so the piece in venice was like yeah

33:21

you would walk into a cave that was very dark a small kind of like the dark cave and then you would come

33:28

into like a really colorful one and end up in this kind of white uh

33:33

ephemeral one so i wanted to create three different experiences and i had this icelandic

33:39

band ham that would create the soundtrack for it because sound brings like

33:46

breadth and time to to to the installations i think that

33:51

become less static and i think that you as the viewer spend different amount of time

33:58

when more of your senses are triggered yeah i think it’s super interesting the

34:05

the installation at the aga because there there is no audio

34:11

component to it but it does have a very specific like acoustic

34:18

yeah and i know like i’m i’m sorry that you’ve never been able to experience it

34:23

but it’s really really wonderful and it’s really like you know it’s something that i never expected from the work but

34:30

you know you walk into the gallery and it’s you know huge high ceilings and concrete floors and

34:36

you know it kind of feels a certain way and it’s like as soon as you cross cross the threshold into

34:43

your installation like there’s this like dampening that like you you feel and

34:50

like it it is the change in acoustics but you feel it like in your entire body when you when you kind of walk in

34:57

and so yeah it’s it’s interesting that it kind of even without you know something playing it does have

35:04

this kind of like cozy acoustic yeah and i think the quietness

35:10

can also be its own soundscape you know the opening of and you become a differently aware of

35:17

your own movement sound you know that you make and uh and then you know they move

35:22

themselves you know they they are hanging so they are loose and um and you move around it and that

35:28

moves around the two so um there’s a different sense of movement there as well

35:35

um so in venice you have this kind of progression

35:40

um that you know you’re you’re working with different types of colors in in different spaces and i i think that is

35:48

to you know kind of give a different feeling whether it’s you know sort of like lighter pastel colors or more

35:55

deeper colors so how do you decide

36:00

what sort of feeling you want to have in an installation

36:06

well it depends on the space i think that the um when i i’m doing these site-specific installations you know

36:13

this the the way i tame the hair and the way i put it together is very much you know in response to the space

36:20

um i can kind of see it in my head you know before um

36:26

but then you know it all happens in the place you know there is no fixed idea you know for example with the placements

36:34

and and the colors you know it’s um a lot of things just happen in the place and uh but with the venice binale um

36:42

i uh because i wanted to be like you’re entering the valley of the beast you’re

36:47

going into a cave and you know how you know i’ve been to the salt mines in poland and you know okay different caves

36:54

uh and you know the darkness you know because that’s why it started with like this really black um

37:01

smaller kind of opening i wanted you to kind of like forget everything immediately what was before

37:08

you entered um and it’s kind of like the blackness kind of cleans uh your

37:16

palette in a way and um and also um the first cave i named all

37:21

the caves the first cave is called primal opus and was dedicated to the heavy metal band that created the

37:28

soundtrack for me so it had to be goth and the um kind of dark and you know so you just

37:34

kind of whoa you’re going to feel it when you um kind of walk in and you’re like into you

37:40

immediately in a different world and then you come into this cathedral like vape cave

37:45

with these crazy colors this psychedelic onslaught of

37:51

our visual stimulation and um and

37:57

you know and that’s you know and it’s really trippy you know it’s it’s really psychedelic you know i’m never taking

38:03

lst or acid but you know it’s almost like analog like you know the healthy

38:09

the healthiest analog assets yeah and also like um

38:16

these like you know inventive uh um uh places through uh

38:23

cartoons uh and uh um video games and things like that you

38:29

know i’m actually like doing digital visions in

38:35

analog you know so i like the fact that it’s you know touch is very important to me

38:40

and the viewer is allowed to touch and pat it as long as they don’t uh start swinging

38:46

in it like tarzan or something you know and i sometimes say that you can pet it like an old shy mammoth

38:53

at your own you know so like um because for me the tactility you know

38:59

like hypersensitivity to texture uh plays a big part in

39:05

in why i chose this material i think um subconsciously and so playing with uh fibers is

39:13

you know very soothing and comes very natural to me i would do all my friends here when we were like teenagers and

39:21

uh be like braiding and and playing with fabrics and making my own clothes and stuff like that so it has a lot to do

39:28

with the the the the touch so i want people to

39:33

to be allowed you know to also um experience that that sense you know of

39:40

touch just look at it so it’s a it’s it’s a

39:45

yeah you can’t touch the artwork yeah yeah and it’s definitely you know

39:51

like it kind of um i guess it’s it’s interesting when you said like you

39:57

like named the venice installation you’re like naming the

40:02

people that are going into it rather than thing of you know kind of even switching

40:08

the point of view or the focus from like of museum

40:13

visits where which is usually sort of like a hands-off kind of distance yeah very insightful

40:19

yeah and i wanted you know it’s very immersive and and multi-sensory and it triggers you know so many like

40:27

it really has a strong you know effect on you usually you know to be uh surrounded by the work you know it’s my

40:33

experience you know to know not everybody of course you know but yeah you know enough people have told me that

40:40

you know how they experience it but um so the first cave in venice was

40:45

called primal opus and then the big colorful one was called astral gloria

40:51

because to me it’s like the the colors are screaming at you they’re like operatic you know

40:57

and um and loud to you know i you know i feel like the colors are loud

41:03

you know they’re like really um uh bright and the pop they pop at you and

41:10

um and there’s just so much going on so that’s uh why i created also this kind

41:15

of white more pastel uh cave called opium natura

41:21

and that one is to kind of you know come like calm you down like you know and

41:26

like let your body kind of like slowly kind of kind of you know like slow down on the triggers from all the

41:32

colorfulness it’s a it’s a journey and it’s a journey through these kind of different

41:40

color palettes uh from like black dark to um

41:45

you know multicolored to this more kind of white um you know kind of like you know

41:51

the calmer to come like just calm down you know your senses but in in but ultimately i think the

41:58

viewer is the destination because uh it it moves you in a way that uh um

42:07

your experience you know activates the space

42:13

yeah and i think in in the one in the aga too like it’s it’s kind it’s a lot more like free form i guess that you

42:19

kind of you walk in you only have to just come over the threshold and then

42:25

you know the ways of moving within that space are really really infinite and really up to what you were

42:32

yeah and a lot of times you know people sit down and they lay down i mean at least i

42:38

do a lot also like um just you know kind of it’s it’s it’s a place to dwell it’s

42:45

like it it invites you to kind of nest in it and to me it’s like a charging station

42:52

it arches my um batteries my my energy my my well-being um

42:58

and it just seems to affect people in extremely positive ways you know um from

43:06

children to to older generation and everything in between teenagers of

43:11

identify with it too so it’s like super interesting that i’m doing this pop

43:16

culture um artwork and pop art and uh it really

43:24

speaks to people you know not only people that are always looking

43:29

at art and go to museums a lot but uh we had a tremendous amount of people go and

43:35

see the show in iceland for example and in venice too also like in chiasma in the national

43:40

gallery in finland i mean uh people are really drawn to it and um

43:47

and the kids asked to go again and again and again again and a friend of mine had to take her son

43:52

seven times you know with different friends and stuff like that but that makes me so happy you know that

43:57

there is a generation of uh you know few generations of kids and teenagers that like think you know

44:04

museums are like oh my god um that uh

44:09

that uh it speaks to them because of the the simplicity

44:15

in the entangled you know universe that i create but um it is just so like pure color um

44:24

onslaught it’s like an exploded rainbow and uh we all kind of

44:30

and it and it you kind of like drop all your defenses you know and you

44:36

just don’t even feel like you have to analyze it to yourself you know mentally like um or

44:42

like uh um i think that you know you just become

44:48

very like pure uh uh emotional uh nerve

44:54

but uh if the new the neurons are affected you know and you like uh don’t try to overanalyze it you know you just

45:00

kind of become uh part of it without all the baggage of what’s

45:05

outside the room yeah totally um

45:10

names and the titling of your work are super important to you

45:16

um i had no idea that comet meant long hair

45:21

i love that no i know yeah um and so our installation at aj is

45:28

called um you’ve also referred to some of like

45:34

the structures as fathoms uh did you want to tell us a little bit about you know maybe both fathom and hyperlinks

45:41

how you came to those titles and and your kind of interest in titling yes it

45:46

just took me took me a while it just like with the color like took me a while to kind of step out of

45:52

my um comfort zone when it came to um like using language

45:58

for the titles of my installations or my artwork and you know i i i was happy to hide behind untitled for longest time

46:05

you know uh and then i became more kind of confident in like uh the context and the

46:11

content and the intention of the work and and that’s when like the title started really kind of seeping in and i’m really

46:19

that’s like a very satisfying process you know when i’m looking for names you know um trying to

46:25

figure out names for the installations and you know the nervescape for example is like this

46:31

combination you know like i make up words if i want to you know and um

46:36

and uh i would call them nervlings like like uh like nerve endings and uh

46:45

and then hyperlinks it’s uh because um it’s like hyper nature it’s like uh it’s

46:52

like such an exaggerated nature and lynx is like these kind of falling

46:57

you know um yeah like yeah like so hyperlinks is this this um

47:05

endings you know these like hyper um hyper hyper endings that kind of fall

47:12

you know a float in the space you know almost like they are like these alien fuzzy aliens you know

47:18

and the fathom i refer to them also as fathoms because

47:24

that’s one of the words that i was also working with and fathom

47:30

in icelandic father

47:35

and father and fathom is actually like this uh um you know

47:41

measurement uh um you know like how how when you’re measuring um the depth of uh

47:47

water for example they would have a rope and like one fathom two fathom because

47:52

problem is from one uh pound of the hand to the other from holding that so you

47:58

stretch it out that one foul and two fathoms and in iceland that’s the same word that’s to herc to

48:04

fathom so it is to like um you know hurt somebody

48:11

and um and so and it’s the same as like when you say that you know you can’t fathom something as you can’t get your

48:18

way around it you can’t grasp grasp it you know so i like this kind of workplace and um

48:25

i’m really into languages and i just like to kind of find the nuances

48:31

and because i come from iceland and then i lived in new york for 25 years i think

48:36

that i enjoy like using both languages to kind of

48:42

like bring about the titles yeah so i think that the titles are

48:48

inspired also by you know coming from another country with another language

48:55

yeah and it’s kind of how i also find different names in english

49:02

um dictionary that’s what i asked my parents to give me when i moved to new york and i just sit with it and i started

49:09

i open it here and there and suddenly like it starts to come to me what exactly it is that i needed to be

49:14

called um you’ve mentioned uh taming

49:20

quite a few times um you know in like i think that like very like

49:27

intricate works that you showed initially like the braids um but then also you talk about it in

49:33

relation to more of the installation works could you talk a little bit more about your kind of

49:40

ideas of taming

49:45

yeah because i think that in the beginning you know you know it was a lot about controlling the material because

49:52

you know hair is just we’re always trying to tame it you know because it’s like we have good hair days and bad hair

49:58

days and it doesn’t do what we wanted to do you know like i was like okay i can have like this here like i had to put like

50:04

paints you know but the it’s sculpting and um

50:10

but it’s also the remnant of the beast in us you know in movies when you know there’s

50:17

a love scene and the woman takes out you know her ponytail so it’s like

50:22

to let loose you know so it is connected with uh um

50:29

the wildness and the uh um primitive uh nature of uh you know be it

50:37

behavior like sex or or anger or whatever you know so

50:42

i’m interested in this mythological ways that the hair has been given all kinds of uh

50:48

power you know and we have an icelandic there’s a lot of like uh myths you know

50:55

like uh you know woman that had really long hair and um

51:01

you know and wouldn’t want to give a you know a lock of her hair for um the bow of her

51:07

husband you know so like uh it’s it’s a it’s a

51:12

sign of power and we are very upset upset if we lose our hair you know and

51:19

uh it is very emotional and and uh

51:25

obsessive it’s it’s so obsessive you know there’s the the whole industry and and the fact that they are like creating

51:32

these hair extensions multi-color you know i’m still blown away by the absurdity of it

51:38

and you know and i’m also like addressing mass production you know and criticizing

51:45

you know like i’m not criticizing but pointing out you know the absurdity of this consumerist mass production

51:53

at the same time i become the problem you know too because i am i’m the consumer as well

52:00

but because it’s artwork you know it’s a different kind of way of

52:05

seeing it because artwork is always trying to last forever and i’m sure that it’s going to last quite long

52:11

and i also like recycle all the material constantly you know um

52:16

to be able to because i don’t want to like you know put it out in nature you know as long as

52:23

plastic is within the cycle but i think that uh it uh there is

52:28

you know it’s like wildness and puppets and you know this kind of imagined uh primitive

52:36

you know climbing vine and growth

52:41

like hyper nature um

52:47

right we if anybody has any questions they want um i don’t have any

52:53

yet so i’m just gonna keep asking you things um there is

52:59

a certain kind of duality in your work perhaps you know you’re like they are

53:06

you know these synthetic or or plastic materials at times at times you’re using um

53:11

natural hair but the forms themselves are kind of this very like

53:16

organic um kind of natural ish

53:22

even though they are kind of these unnatural colors so could you um talk a little bit about this kind of like

53:27

blending of like natural unnatural yeah i think that you know the work is

53:33

very much expressionistic landscape painting you know in three-dimensional environment uh kind of

53:40

format and um i’m really intrigued by the way forms in nature behave and material

53:47

behaves because there are these like parallels you know like i said with the with uh um

53:55

you know everything like behave like there are so things behave the same you know and um

54:02

plant life and growth and if you think about you know i mean i was just watching like a fantastic uh

54:09

fungi and just to see the way it grows i mean i’m like yeah you know because

54:15

there is a certain like uh patterns and movement that

54:21

chaos you think something is chaotic but it’s like climbing vine but it’s not and when

54:27

you start seeing it more it’s just like there is this this fractal um growth in

54:32

it and um little didn’t know after i had been doing this these nervescape series for a

54:38

long time um i’ve done like six of them or something that i saw on the news that

54:44

they had um put out the latest

54:49

brain scans of the neurological pathways in the brain

54:56

and i was completely shocked because it looked exactly like my work so you know

55:03

my imagined world of interior landscape of the brain

55:08

was actually spot on i mean they put they add the colors to see you know where its

55:14

thought nerve endings you know correspond to this brain and this part

55:21

of the brain i mean and um but it’s like this feathery kind of and it behaves the same you know and

55:28

and there is a certain repetitiveness in nature that um i like working with as well

55:37

um you’ve worked in a lot of um

55:43

or in a few like collaborations um and i think there’s also maybe like an

55:48

interest in sort of like using the material as like a collaborator given that you know you’re not

55:55

um dying into specific colors you kind of like take it as it as it comes and work

56:00

with it and i know that you also have a great interest in um

56:06

neuroscience so have you ever or would you ever maybe you have something

56:12

in the works of you know collaborating with different like scientists or

56:17

neurobiologists or anything like that yes

56:23

yes i am um you know we’re just waiting for the time when we are in the same place you know there’s a

56:31

brain surgeon neuroscience scientist in new york that uh i i was introduced to

56:37

by alanna heiss that is totally up for collaborating with me on

56:43

uh artwork that really like kind of combines exactly

56:48

like you say the um you know because of these uh um

56:53

brain scans and uh so i wanted to kind of make new work that

56:59

would be the mapping of of feelings and uh and brain imagery

57:05

and um i’ve done also like some 3d printed uh kind of imitation of

57:12

the neural landscape in the brain uh combined with hair and uh so

57:18

but uh i always fall back on the analog it’s just the

57:24

the the touching of you know that seems to be like the biggest trigger in my uh

57:30

creative uh um practice the actual the actual making of it you

57:37

know but when it comes to like uh these things you know um that i’ve been doing

57:42

lately these large-scale installations you know been like 12 of them or something over six years

57:47

and um of course i don’t uh i don’t get to make it all myself you know i i

57:55

count on the help of a lot of really um talented uh assistants

58:01

that help me like mix the colors and uh i give them also certain freedom

58:07

to to be creative you know so that it’s not just like i want this and this and this

58:12

so my biggest inspiration is people also just the human being you know and our

58:19

behavior and that’s why also i read about the psychology and uh neuroscience and uh

58:28

i’m just fascinated i mean i would probably be you know you know like uh

58:34

i would what’s what’s in this word for like studying the human behavior uh psychologist

58:40

yeah like just uh you know just the human behavior is just so inspiring

58:46

to me and i think that the material comes from pop culture uh it’s sold to

58:51

be added to your own hair um here is this like crazy uh obsessive uh part of our body

58:58

that um we go out of our go such links to to um

59:04

play with and uh you know this industry and and you know how many hair gels and hairsprays do we need you know is it

59:11

saying you know and samples i’m just really like kind of fascinated in

59:17

uh obsessive behaviors i guess

59:22

um [Music] right i think we’re we’re kind of just approaching an hour

59:29

but i did want to ask you uh one more question before we go um

59:36

i want to know if covid has changed how you think about your

59:43

work um i think you know especially thinking about you know covet hair i

59:49

haven’t had my hair cut in years yeah um so you

59:55

do you think about your work kind of differently in this kind of new context that we find

1:00:01

ourselves in well i think that um it’s interesting because um

1:00:08

during covet you know i went to iceland with my daughter and just stayed there for a year and a half you know um

1:00:15

part of me was really relieved you know that i could just go and be in the same place you know for all this time because

1:00:20

i’ve been traveling a lot and was scheduled to travel for shows and um the stillness and the and the um

1:00:29

you know to be in place uh and not be able to be so out and apart

1:00:35

and they’re so like obsessive you know in a way um had a big influence on it but i don’t

1:00:42

think that it i don’t think that necessarily the the way we responded

1:00:50

to not being able to go to the hairdresser you know um but uh but when it comes to touch you

1:00:57

know and also like just the way we ourselves like touch our hair or touch somebody else’s hair our kids or you

1:01:03

know our spouse or something like that and uh and it kind of it’s more i didn’t it’s

1:01:10

more just kind of confirmed a lot of the things that i’ve been thinking about you know when it comes to our association

1:01:16

with our own hair and uh to get it like the fact that it grew

1:01:22

out of control you know but i could observe how um

1:01:28

you know huge topic it was how how much people talked about it that they felt like so

1:01:34

stressed and irritated that they couldn’t like you know people you know they were you know growing beers and

1:01:40

and i just think that’s fascinating that um it just goes to show like uh um even

1:01:45

more you know how i’ve been seeing um our relationship with hair

1:01:51

and but the biggest impact it had on me and my work really was that i was you know

1:01:57

don’t leave me too long to my own devices in one place because i ended up

1:02:03

opening up my own museum in iceland and uh it’s called harvester then this

1:02:10

means uh headspace or headquarters and um i bought together with my

1:02:17

business partner lilia baltes who’s been working with me as a producer of my projects for five years

1:02:24

so basically what uh i found these uh old barracks uh like army barracks

1:02:31

from the second world war when they were like the u.s navy was using him from bombs shelters

1:02:38

then they were moved to reykjavik into like potato nursery because we are so peaceful in iceland with this dog

1:02:45

yeah potatoes in there and uh i decided that uh i wanted a permanent home for uh

1:02:53

chromosapiens so uh the chromosomes has been installed permanently now in iceland and

1:03:00

so basically maybe what happened to me during code was like you know i i got to go home for the first time in 25 years

1:03:07

and stay there for all four seasons and more and uh and this kind of

1:03:13

brings like something came out of it that is like my work is going to be like firmly rooted

1:03:20

literally in iceland now and i’ve always been you know

1:03:25

you know taking a part in icelandic art scene and all of that but you know i’m the first woman to open up

1:03:31

her own museum or a temple over her own work uh um while alive and doing it herself

1:03:38

and i’m very proud of that and i think that uh it is very much like kind of

1:03:44

uh similar to i mean a lot of the old sculptors uh um used to do that or you

1:03:50

know and uh but it’s kind of like a macho thing to do and um i kind of have

1:03:55

fun with this kind of feminine macho kind of duality

1:04:01

masculine and feminine like you know i use this pneumatic stable gun when i make my hairy artwork so it looks very

1:04:07

precious but it’s made with a lot of force and action there’s a death metal and um

1:04:13

but so yeah i i think that uh maybe like the stand stillness you know to like

1:04:21

per the permanence just the permanence of you and your life and your place and

1:04:28

just kind of like to pause and nest and dwell in yourself and stand still

1:04:34

kind of resulted in me wanting to work to just kind of have a home not be

1:04:39

traveling around the world and just kind of like belonging just sense of belonging i

1:04:45

guess yeah yeah that that’s beautiful um congratulations on the news

1:04:54

um i knew before covid at least i’m not sure

1:04:59

anymore but there used to be a direct flight between edmonton and reykjavik so yeah okay if that comes back iceland air

1:05:07

if they come through for us uh then you know we’ll have a direct route to come visit for sure

1:05:14

i’ll be great you’re all welcome to comment the head station

1:05:22

well thank you so much um it was really wonderful to chat with you uh and hear more about your work um

1:05:29

and yeah the the show is up until january 2nd um if you haven’t seen it

1:05:35

there’s still some time to come down um and yeah thanks so much

1:05:40

thank you for having me and uh inviting me to do this artist talk and thank you everybody that

1:05:45

is watching and i have no idea because i don’t see anything

1:05:51

uh it’s the first time i do like uh um like this kind of uh lecture but uh thank you so much for

1:05:57

having me i really enjoyed it it’s great to be able to talk to your audience yeah thank you so much thank you all right

1:06:04

bye bye

No results found