Spaces - exhibition with work by Þórdís Jóhannesdóttir. Opening on Saturday 14th of September at 15:00.
Exhibition time is from September 14th - December 22nd 2024.
Who remembers what was in the news the Tuesday before last? Who remembers what the weather was like in the spring?
Days pop up, and then make off, leaving no trace – except on those rare occasions when some certain event succeeds in etching its imprint on our memory.
Scratching runic letters on the inside of the skull.
This is where it happened.
Otherwise, life is simply what it is. Mundane. For we spend much of our time in some kind of space. In the gaps in between the busy days on the calendar.
And all of us occupy spaces of different kinds, floating somewhere between opposite extremes – neither idiots nor geniuses, neither losers nor heroes, but called by other, even more indeterminate titles that lie in between.
Almost everything is found, and happens, in the spaces. The space is neither spectacular nor insignificant. It is filter coffee. Vanilla ice cream. A cloudy spring day with an elusive breeze. It is How are you? and Fine, thanks.
Yet it is also the framework.
Spaces are places, where everything that really matters happens. Something that is humdrum in the moment may prove worth treasuring a day, or even a decade, later. Not necessarily as a vivid memory of a specific event – an imprint in the memory – but as a feeling, an ambiance, an enigmatic sense of something.
Yes, the days rush past in what seems like a dense cloud, yet sometimes one only needs to pause in order to see more clearly – to deepen the intermediate space, and retrieve from it something that would otherwise be discarded. Something that re-sets us, that nourishes, opens, enhances understanding, makes us smile, sparks a new feeling.
These displays all around us.
All these tiny motions in the big world that perhaps deserve, after all, to be written in history – if only as a faint scribble in the margin.
Days pop up, and then make off, leaving no trace – except on those rare occasions when some certain event succeeds in etching its imprint on our memory.
Scratching runic letters on the inside of the skull.
This is where it happened.
Otherwise, life is simply what it is. Mundane. For we spend much of our time in some kind of space. In the gaps in between the busy days on the calendar.
And all of us occupy spaces of different kinds, floating somewhere between opposite extremes – neither idiots nor geniuses, neither losers nor heroes, but called by other, even more indeterminate titles that lie in between.
Almost everything is found, and happens, in the spaces. The space is neither spectacular nor insignificant. It is filter coffee. Vanilla ice cream. A cloudy spring day with an elusive breeze. It is How are you? and Fine, thanks.
Yet it is also the framework.
Spaces are places, where everything that really matters happens. Something that is humdrum in the moment may prove worth treasuring a day, or even a decade, later. Not necessarily as a vivid memory of a specific event – an imprint in the memory – but as a feeling, an ambiance, an enigmatic sense of something.
Yes, the days rush past in what seems like a dense cloud, yet sometimes one only needs to pause in order to see more clearly – to deepen the intermediate space, and retrieve from it something that would otherwise be discarded. Something that re-sets us, that nourishes, opens, enhances understanding, makes us smile, sparks a new feeling.
These displays all around us.
All these tiny motions in the big world that perhaps deserve, after all, to be written in history – if only as a faint scribble in the margin.
Here in the gallery we see works by Þórdís Jóhannesdóttir, which arise from her desire to document the spaces. And more than that: for Þórdís has spread out the moments of space, enlarged them, re-shaped them, and hence presents to us new and unexpected perspectives on a familiar environment.
These are simple forms, according to the artist – a mixture of light and shadow on the margins of the manmade and the natural. Phenomena and events that are seen anywhere and anytime, that appear to be obvious to the artist, although people tend not to notice them.
These are simple forms, according to the artist – a mixture of light and shadow on the margins of the manmade and the natural. Phenomena and events that are seen anywhere and anytime, that appear to be obvious to the artist, although people tend not to notice them.
Here is a space. And here is an opportunity to pay attention to everything in existence that goes unnoticed.
Here the framework of our days has been allowed to solidify.
To crystallise.
And perhaps even greyness may shine when seen in a new light.
To crystallise.
And perhaps even greyness may shine when seen in a new light.
Text by : Einar Lövdahl
Translation: Anna Yates
Translation: Anna Yates
Even though artist Þórdís Jóhannesdóttir has long used photography as her medium in her art practice she can not be considered a traditional photographer. The photograph is the main material in her works, material she then bends, folds or stretches both literally and metaphorically. The photographs she snapps from everyday life; from other peoples artworks, architecture or nature. The photographs are then used as a basis for further structure of three dimensional art works. The outcome is an artwork that brings forward multiple surfaces that each one reflects light differently and/or making the artwork stretch into the exhibition space and dwell on the borders of two and three dimensiontal works.
Þórdís Jóhannesdóttir studied Fine Arts at Iceland Academy of the Arts; she got her B.a. degree in 2007 and in 2015 she got her M.a. from the same Academy. Alongside her individual art practice she has worked and exhibited in a two people collaborative Hugsteypan. Þórdís has exhibited widely in Iceland in Galleries and Museums.
Þórdís Jóhannesdóttir studied Fine Arts at Iceland Academy of the Arts; she got her B.a. degree in 2007 and in 2015 she got her M.a. from the same Academy. Alongside her individual art practice she has worked and exhibited in a two people collaborative Hugsteypan. Þórdís has exhibited widely in Iceland in Galleries and Museums.