Words by

Steinunn Jakobsdóttir

1.
“‘Góða mamma’ (Mommy Dearest) is an installation and video where a giant ball of yarn is grotesquely placed upon a woman’s body, handicapping her as she tries to go about her daily duties in the modern, linear, masculine environment of business and managing. The ball of yarn is a feminine symbol, representing among other things the domestic heritage and irrevocable motherhood and acts as a counterpoint to all the square, sharp and dark shapes of its environment. It also makes for an amusing visual experience, kind of sad and amusing at the same time. I also used sound to amplify the hindrances our protagonist encounters, including a tea-kettle adding sinister and domestic suspense to the whole setting.”
Svala Ragnarsdóttir – Art

2.
Culture and Nature Centre in Álftanes. One of the main goals in the new urban planning for Álftanes is to create a living environment with all the services that are needed for a small town like Álftanes. The location of the Culture and Nature Centre is an extension of the existing plan and is situated at the end of the main street. The entrance of the culture centre is therefore a beginning of the new urban plan. The location is also well suited to connect the existing paths that wind around Álftaness to the culture centre. The house has therefore two entrances, one that extends itself into the main street and takes a part in the urban environment, and then another that serves the purpose of connecting the cultural centre to the nature of Álftanes. In that way the house is working both with the existing environment and the urban plan.
Bergur Þorsteinsson – Architecture

3.
“My exhibit is entitled ‘Nang Jáadaas’, which means The Woman in the Haida language. The Haida are a First Nations tribe that have lived on and around the Queen Charlotte islands of the northwest coast of Canada for thousands of years. My project sprung from my B.A. thesis, in which I explored the formal and technical principles which govern the native art of the northwest coast. My exhibit is a triptych of illustrations in this style, which display my personal ‘crest’ of sorts, the women in my life and their significance to me.”
Sigurður Oddsson – Graphic Design

4.
“Belonging to an on-going series called ‘Babel Bible’, this Last Judgment is my personal interpretation of the dramatic Bible episode; playing with the classic models of representations of the episode, I present these scenes in a surrealistic and humoristic way and try to divert this visual tradition in order to add my personal language and messages.

‘The Last Judgment’, consists in seven photographs that are presented like an altar. We see the scene of the judgment, heaven and hell, the travel of humans towards the two different places, and two angels looking at the viewer of the work. Through these different scenes and symbols, I want to create layers of meaning and ask questions. For example, this work shows the absurdity of the dogmatic division between hell and heaven, heaven and hell being illusions and replicas. It addresses a critic of narcissism, a phenomenon of our society that is linked to our use of the media, and then it tries to question the viewer to ask him/ herself the value of a situation, but also his/her way of looking at artworks.

Being a work for a graduation exhibition, my work asks also the values, the seriousness of the event itself, but also comes back to the whole idea of judgment: in school, in art.
Etienne de France – Art

5.
“Krossgata: (2-7) deep space / in your face – a windowbox. July 1969: Michael Collins goes alone 30 times around the moon – 59 hours, 30 minutes, 25.79 seconds. (He never felt lonely)”
Páll Haukur Björnsson – Art

6.
The floor lamp ‘Illuminant’ is made in our belief that all our thoughts and doings come back to us. The lampshade is made of reflective material, and hangs from the ceiling in a fish-line. The light-bulb is placed in a little foot on the floor and over that is a grating with plastic film in various colours. You choose the colour you prefer and place it over the light, and the lampshade gives you back your colour.
Kristín Birna Bjarnadóttir – Product Design

7.
“This collection is a story about a woman who is sensual, sexy and fragile so she dresses in heavy armour to be able to make it in the brutal world we live in. The colours are black, silver, off-white and fleshy pink. The models wore corsets and bum-rolls to exaggerate their feminine curves and make their legs appear longer.”
Arna Sigrún Haraldsdóttir – Fashion Design

8.
‘Growing Jewellery’ is a redefinition of modern day values. It’s a clash of jewellery and gardening – couture and organism. It is a collection of hand jewellery, which is designed for people in metropolitan cities and is an experiment in drawing nature toward man, as nature being the presupposition of life.
Hafsteinn Júlíusson – Product Design

9.
“Stuðlar are corrugated-paper modules that link together in a simple and easy manner to form a wall that is as functional in the home as in the office. Stuðlar were developed during a workshop run by Hrafnkell Birgisson, where each student was required to design a product for a local manufacturing company. I selected Kassagerðin-Central Packaging and developed a product using the company’s basic production materials and techniques.”
Friðgerður Guðmundsdóttir – Product Design

10.
“The development of Blackletter typefaces stopped in the first half of the 20th century, as they fell out of favour for social and political reasons. In the decades that have passed, the legacy of the 500-year history of Blackletter has been mostly forgotten, and Blackletter typefaces are rarely used, apart from beer bottle labels and for rock-music graphics. In researching my BA thesis, I discovered that in Germany, until around 1940, it was quite common to use Blackletter typefaces for books and other large texts. I wanted to attempt to make a book-typeface based on the Blackletter form, in a modern style. To try to envision where the Blackletter form would have developed had it not lost its standing.”
Sveinbjörn Pálsson – Graphic Design