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LAXNESS TRANSLATED
Halldór Laxness writes this description of a grandmother in his book The Fish Can Sing. It is a description which can be adapted to describe Laxness’ own writing. It is writing so natural, so unforced and so unaffected that the reader becomes…
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THIS MAN IS REAL
After gaining such a strong presence in this town it’s impossible not to stop by and see the photographs. Albert, perhaps, draws you in but the photos are not as plentiful as you’d expect with such an extensive advertising campaign. They are,…
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A case of a basket or a basket case
In 1957, the old farmstead Árbær was chosen to be Reykjavík’s public park and open-air museum with old houses of historical value. Among the current exhibitions is a recollection of the Fifties where a day in the life of six people of…
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AURORA BOREALIS IN THE BASEMENT
The disco-like magic of the exhibit was lost when a museum staff member unplugged the device, transforming the shimmering light into something resembling the late-night glow of a stoplight, but this unpleasant experience is easily avoided by arriving at the exhibit sometime…
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SÆVAR KARL´S GALLERY: THE SUITS WON’T SPOIL IT
The exhibition space is simple and serene. Its discrete ambiance makes it feel like a peculiar haven, distinctly sans-fashion. But there’s no getting around it: it’s weird for me, Joe Art-Enthusiast, to walk through a zone of thousand-dollar suits to get there.…
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A House of Culture
Parked right in the heart of Reykjavík is a house with the motto of being “at the heart of a nation”. This majestic building is none other than the Culture House, situated at Hverfisgata 15. It is sometimes claimed that globalization is…
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In the footsteps of fictional characters
The City Library organises guided walking tours around Reykjavík centre, where scenes of great Icelandic literature are visited. There is a guide who delicately blends the world of fiction with history, while an actor reads excerpts from selected books and brings them…
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MAN BITES SHARK
And then there are the huge green eggs spotted with black dots: seagull and blackbird eggs. I’ve seen them eaten raw before, right in front of the counter. Who buys these things? I felt compelled to ask. “Mostly old people,” says Hjalti…
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Guerilla Theatre of the Absurd
“So there’s this chef and this hotel reception clerk. And they’re just standing in the middle of Kringlan. One is standing on top of a planter and the other one is on the ground. And their poses look like something out of…
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Shopping in Front of Suffering
It is, of course, to say the least, disconcerting; the sorrow and scars hit us brutally under the bright mall light. But the photos serve to remind us that not only is there suffering while we are shopping, but it is in…
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THE KIND OF MUSEUM YOU WANT TO LIVE IN
The museum (called quite literally “Museum” or “Collection” in Icelandic) faces Laugavegur, but looking in the window it is difficult to discern how extensive the collection is. I recall once seeing a single suited mannequin in the window and presuming the space…
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“Is this paper clip art?”
Upon entering the shop I was surrounded by chunks of lava that you could pick up on your way to the airport. There were abstract landscape paintings that were perfect for someone who is searching for art work to match the colors…
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EINAR MÁR
Einar Már Gudmundson is driving me back to 101 Reykjavík from his suburban home in his soccer mom-style SUV. He turns off the Icelandic news and puts on a full-band, late 70s Dylan album. “Bob Dylan is an outsider, too. Or maybe…
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OPPS! “I DIDN’T DO IT” AGAIN
From playwriting to installation art, painting to photography, books to documentary film, he´s done it, and nearly all of it will be featured June 11th through August 8th at the Reykjavík Art Museum. “I Didn’t Do It” will display various works created…
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Orthodontists, Artists and Hairstylists to the Stars
The gallery is situated within a cluster of old structures which, in the diffused evening light, add an aesthetic contribution of their own. An abandoned wool factory looms authoritatively near a building which houses an old swimming pool, a recording studio utilized…
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A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY…
The exhibition is a collection of dissimilar artworks by various artists who are united by their method of expression. The exhibition has normal, almost mundane things that no one would ever bother documenting for the sole reason that they’re just too common.…
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Building something out of nothing.
In one of those rare instances of the rich giving to the poor, the National Bank of Iceland decided to practically give an office building to artists to use as studios. The building had previously housed a rope factory and then Fréttablaðið…
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KJARVALS OTHER PLACE
Jóhannes Kjarval is one of those names in Icelandic art that made it even to the briefest of brief tourist brochures, and not only because he, just like his literary Nobel-prize-winning counterpart, uses a surname that is easier to remember than the…
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THE CORONATION OF POPPEA
Hindus maintain that you should dedicate yourself to your spouse, and then when grey hair starts setting in, you should go up on a mountain and meditate on spiritual matters. For Christians, it has usually been a case of either one or…
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HOW COLD THE SCRIPTORIUM IS TODAY
If other nations were as considerate as the Danes are, the exhibition halls at the British Museum or Louvre would be gapingly empty and the citizens of Egypt and Greece would be crowding at their respective harbours, cheering the arrival of several…
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Free thinkers
When I first heard about this new society of young artists renting a warehouse by the harbour, it was from my flatmate’s friend, who was drunk out of his mind. I didn’t put much stock in what he was saying, but a…
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SIGURJÓN ÓLAFSSON MUSEUM
It seems that once an Icelander gets his hands on a paintbrush or a chisel, there is no stopping him. The same hunger for new discoveries that drove Icelanders to the American shore a thousand years ago forces their 20th century offspring…
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The Art of Travel
“He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. Residence as tourism in its most concentrated form? Perhaps not, but staying home and smelling the roses seems like an increasingly…