Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.04.2005, Blaðsíða 31

You had to find it at random, but
I wandered into one small room to
find a menu hanging on the wall was
different songs you could order from
the band Apparat. They also had
quite an impressive collection of old
organs in their tiny workshop.
In the large space downstairs,
gigantic shapes of drums were on
display next to Sugarcube alumnus
Sigtryggur, the drummer, with tools
in his hands doing what looked
like last minute fixing. Next to his
space, one could watch a lonely
documentary about the loneliest
place on Iceland, the lighthouse at
Galtaviti.
Mercifully, the drumming began.
Steintryggur along with two other
drummers lashed at cones and the
massive drums. I was on my way into
a good trance, feeling the Icelandic
aboriginal blood in me boiling with
desire to merge with the sound.
Close as K & B has ever come to a
genuine moment.
However my trance was cut short
as four dancers came bursting in
with the sort of movements that
I don’t know if they irritate me or
simply bore me. I found it strange
how the dancers always seem to get
out of the dance into the role of the
model as soon as they caught the eye
of the camera. I personally would
have liked to only watch the mad
drummers; it is so rare you get to
focus on drummers. Drummers have
always been my favourite to look at,
at gigs, so consumed into the music
that all level of pretentiousness is
impossible. It would have been cool
for a change to see the drummers in
the foreground and only them.
On my departure, I couldn’t help
reflecting on what was noticeably
absent from Klink & Bank. On the
very same day as the birthday of
Klink & Bank was another more
infamous birthday, the second year
anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Walking between the massive
mountains of concrete in the dark,
spotting small colourful glass
creatures between them, looking as
if they were crawling slower than
snails towards the tunnel of light…
Walking, looking, wanting to
touch those life forms that captured
manna through the starlights
nested in the ceiling. It must have
been the first sunny day for weeks
and I got blinded for a second as I
entered into the bright white light.
Strange creatures followed, I was
in a world of adventure, a make-
believe world. I easily merged into it
and I never wanted to get out of it.
Mountaintops of perfectly shaped
melted glass, I was climbing those
mountains in my mind. The green
glass shapes in a low box with white
sand, the glass had radiant light
moving within. I walked slowly in
circles around it again and again;
depending on how the rays of the
sun touched the surface of the glass,
they were glowing ghostly light
from deep inside. Perhaps this was a
reference to a Japanese rock garden
or an attempt to create balance and
serenity in a world full of chaos.
It might be a classic metaphor,
walking through the valley of
shadows to the light at the end of
the tunnel. However, at Brynhildur’s
exhibit, the viewer is led through the
darkness, following the creatures--
strange and colourful, they make the
journey full of pleasant discoveries,
as often happens when one wanders
into those deep dark corridors of the
soul.
Visual World
by Brynhildur Þorgeirsdóttir
at the Reykjavík Art Museum until the
24th of April
Hafnarhusið, Tryggvagatta 17,
101 Reykjavík, Ph# 590-1200
www.artmuseum.is
If God Were a Poet,
He Would Have
Created This World
Review of Brynhildur Þorgerisdóttir’s
Visual World
Despite the Fréttablaðið ad
sponsored by Landsbankinn,
this was an open house for
and by the people who were
always here anyway. But
for those of us used to, if not
overwhelmed by, the art in
the small local studios, the
music and film at K & B’s
one year anniversary made
for a good day out.
By Birgitta Jónsdóttir
KLINK & BANK’S
FIRST BIRTHDAY
PARTY:
Relevant as Ever
By Birgitta Jónsdóttir
SECOND FLOOR
AUSTURSTRÆTI 9 - REYKJAVÍK
RESERVATIONS: 561 8555
GET A TASTE OF ICELAND AT THE RENOWNED DOWNTOWN
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THE FRESHEST OF ICELANDIC FISH, MEAT AND VEGETABLES
ONE OF REYKJAVIK‘S FINEST
“They put on such a beautiful
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in my life. It was all so perfectly
cooked too...Beautiful!”
Jamie Oliver’s Diary
31