D projects - 2009
D is a series of exhibitions at Hafnarhus, drawing its name from one of the building's galleries. It is intended as an ongoing project, by which the Reykjavik Museum hopes to draw attention to the work of promising artists who have not had prior private exhibitions in Iceland's major museums. All the artists will be creating new work for the space. The museum will publish an annual catalogue reviewing each year's shows. Curated by Reykjavik Museum staff.
D-11 Pétur Már Gunnarsson
22 january - 8 march 2009
In an earlier installation of Pétur Már Gunnarsson (b. 1975) he forged new links between a poem and images by literally illustrating verses with everyday objects. The process of presenting the whole poem a verse at a time with one object or assemble of simple things, Gunnarsson gave the words the opportunity of rebirth in a new present, and conversely the text, foreseeably, added new imaginative meanings to the ordinary things.
Gunnarsson started out the exhibition Boundary with a simple computer programme that deconstructs and then re-groups letters from words, sentences, or gibberish into short alphabetic geographical or country codes (for instance ISL for Iceland, MYS for Malaysia, and SLV for El Salvador). His intention is to feed to this programme either his ideas about this exhibition or a nordic version of the myth about Excalibur, and present the lettered codes resulted from the text. Just as each word has its own meaning in a poem, and is given specific sound and texture by a poet, Gunnarsson eventually builds Boundary out of objects, sculptures, and images that are not explicit reminiscences of any parameters, but in each work, through interactions with its environment and reflections on its natural or altered state in a new context, resonates subtle recollections of limits, confines, separations.
Gunnarsson studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria from 2005–2006, after completing studies at the University of Iceland in 2004 and the Iceland Academy of the Arts 1999–2002.
Curator: Yean Fee Quay.
D12 Jeannette Castioni
19 march 2009 – 3 may 2009
Who's Afraid of Who*
Jeannette Castioni (b. 1968) grew up in Verona, Italy—a place rich in histories and heritages, where icons are so plentiful that they are consumed as "daily bread". In Who's Afraid of Who she scans over the imaginative merging cultural landscapes through communications and technologies, and pushes this digital orthodoxy into a kind of cultural amnesia—and a kind of anxiety and fear brought forth by icons and images. With the various elements in the exhibition she identifies uncanny and incongruous juxtapositions, and surprising fusions of ideas between the old and the new, the residual and the emergent.
Castioni knows well the power of icons and their prevailing authority over our prejudices and judgements. Using art historical references from famous Italians like Bernini (1598–1680), Giambologna (1529–1608), and Tintoretto (1518–1594), and German artist Dürer (1471–1528), and Netherlandish painter Memling (1430–1494)—Castioni draws out a paradox between given icons, images and suggestions of the icons, and the assumed images, in a context that gives them temporary meanings and fragmentary values.
A platform with holes in the middle of the gallery is a stage where visitors are invited to step on and discover for themselves audio interviews of famous figures—one of them is surrealist painter Dalí (1904–1989) talking about his mustache.
Castioni lives and works in Reykjavik and graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2006. She has been exhibiting in Iceland, USA, Italy, Germany, Lithuania, and Russia.
Yean Fee Quay, curator
*According to correct English grammar it should be "Who's Afraid of Whom." In this case, the title is an exemplification of inadequacy in different language systems.
D13 Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir
3 September 2009 – 18 October 2009
The exhibition D13 features a new video piece and patchwork wall pieces by Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir. The title of the installation Nowhere is unmistakably clear in Birgisdóttir’s work, but the simple but dissimilar meanings connoted to the word ‘nowhere’ run into one another among the elements in her installation.Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2006. She has shown in Iceland and USA, and has directed a handful of animations for various local music bands. The music videos have been viewed over a few hundred thousand times on YOUTUBE.D13 is part of the D-project series initiated in 2007. The series selects young artists from Iceland who are showing their work diligently and have reached a certain maturity in the early phases of their artistic careers. Curated by Yean Fee Quay.
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