Life In Pictures: A Day With Dodda Maggý Under An Opal Moon

Dodda Maggý is an Icelandic multimedia artist and musician who has received wide critical acclaim for her hypnotic, swirling compositions of scanned opal gemstones. We shadowed her during several days of teaching, scanning, editing, composing, and the varied range of tasks her work requires.

“Generally I would say my life is full of oppositions,” says Dodda. “There are long hours of solitude in my studio, and then working with lots of different people, like when I’m teaching or working to materialise my work in different situations and places.”

“I’m constantly trying to find a balance between the highly ethereal internal world and the practical and material, “ she continues. “My works originate from dreams, daydreams, fantasy, hallucinations, and the invisible; then I have to go through painstaking process of transforming material to the digital realm. You can see the process of my work, from the very beginning, through months of transformation, before it reaches its final form.”

Dodda’s day begins with a cup of coffee under her favourite blanket.

First stop: teaching a class at the Reykjavík School of Visuals Arts in the few hours of daylight.

At BERG Contemporary, Dodda signs off on her artworks and prepares them for shipping.

Dreams becoming real: the opal nebulas take on a physical form at the gallery.

Dodda’s imagery isn’t computer-generated; before being animated; she hand-scans every gemstone.

The results of the scanned stones: ‘Opal (étude), No. 2’ (2017).

Relocated to the interior darkness of the editing suite, Dodda prepares some video work to be shown at Bíó Paradís during Airwaves.

Too much information: a pile of hard drives at the studio.

Crystalline soundscapes: composing audio to accompany the visuals.

With a mind full of spheres, Dodda walks home under the pearlescent moon.

Read our full interview with Dodda Maggý here.