Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.12.2009, Page 44

The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 18 — 2009
28
Heyrðu mig nú (“Hear me now”) is a
concert series that the Icelandic Sym-
phony Orchestra organizes as an out-
reach to younger music lovers. Thank-
fully, I'm not a teenager anymore,
but... you know... I scored free tickets.
This time, on November 6, they were
going to play a piece by Igor Stravin-
sky called The Firebird. I had never
heard the piece, but Stravinsky has al-
ways interested me since I heard about
how another piece of his, The Rite of
Spring, caused his audience to riot
when it premiered.
"Tonight we are going to play a
masterpiece for you,” espoused con-
ductor Rumon Gamba and instantly
connected with his teenage audience.
Step by step, we learned about the story
the piece tells, the concept of the piece,
how Stravinsky liked to paint a picture
using different sections of the band as
colours. Then he made the band play
examples to support his teachings.
All in all, this was well taught and a
well received lesson in classical com-
position. As we, the audience, were so
informed about the music, we had to
agree upon hearing it in it's entirety
that a masterpiece was indeed being
performed
On November 22nd, I took my new-
ly acquired compositional knowledge
to Hallgrímskirkja church to witness
a world premiere of Cecilía by Áskell
Másson and Thor Vilhjálmsson. This
oratory is written in honour of Saint
Cecilia, who died a martyr’s death in
the 2nd century. She sang her praise to
God while dying, and is therefore the
saint of music and musicians. I was
excited to witness instruments like
the Stone Harp and the Water Drums.
In plain English: the lyrics were won-
derfully written and the music was
fantastic. What stood out the most,
however, was how well the church’s
natural acoustics came out. This was
especially evident when the choir
sang a Capella. I was also impressed
with compositional decisions, such as
chain vocals that brought out natural
delay or instrumental ideas such as
Stone Harp or glasses of water. The
water drum, though, wasn't as impres-
sive as I had hoped. I feel they could
have amped it up a bit, maybe put a lit-
tle echo on them, just to let them shine
more. It was a nice idea that could have
been better executed. This didn't cast
a shadow on the great composition and
fantastic performance.
I'm No
Expert #2
The Gerðuberg
Matinée Series
Music | Aðalsteinn Jörundssonart | Interview
In September, Japanese pop art leg-
end Yoshimoto Nara visited Iceland
to open his exhibit “Crated Rooms.”
Heavily inf luenced by the anime and
manga movements of the 60s, Nara
made a definitive name for himself
during the J-pop movement of the
90s. Nara’s work is deceptive—it
draws viewers in with adorably wide-
eyed children before stabbing them
in the back with devilish surprises
like knives, skulls and disturbing
texts.
This interview was conducted by
Grapevine’s resident comic artist Lóa
Hlín Hjálmtýsdóttir. We cleaned it
up a little, because the interviewer
sometimes lost her ability to speak
properly due to the stress of inter-
viewing her long-time hero..
lÓa Hlín HjálMTÝSdÓTTiR: I’ve
been reading intellectual interviews
with you, but I wanted to do a more
“how you feel” kind of one, because
your work has much to do with
one feelings. When you see it, it
connects with you emotionally. Does
a big and complicated professional
life like yours affect your work?
yoSHiMoTo naRa: No.
lHH: It changes nothing?
yn: No, nothing. But sometimes I’ll
feel pressure from the audience.
lHH: I see... but if you do create
something really good, are you
worried that your next piece will be
awful?
yn: Ah...yes. But even if I make a
good one, the next day when I wake
up and see my painting I’m like
‘hmm...’ [makes a doubtful face]
and that’s why it’s no problem. And
anyway, I like making paintings—
It’s not that I want satisfy anyone in
particular by doing them.
HaUkUR SM: Does your success
make it harder for you to accomplish
your goals? And if so, how so?
yn: Definitely harder. When I
was totally unknown, I could use
all of my time to paint. Now, for
example, I have to do this interview.
I sometimes feel a kind of a pressure
from the audience, they who love my
artwork. I never felt pressure when
I was starting. And the pressure
I feel now is not from gallerist or
the critics, just from the audience.
Because they love my works.
lHH: Where did you two find each
other [Nara’s main collaborator,
designer Hideki Toyoshima, was
present during the interview. He
often oversees the installation of
Nara’s work and collaborates with
him on setting up the plateau (i.e.
the containers and huts that house
the work)]?
yn: It was six years ago, in Osaka,
his hometown. He is one of the
founders of Graf, which is a kind of
a company that...
HidEki ToyoSHiMa: It’s of group
of people I used to work with. My
friends, basically. We did different
things: furniture and interior
design... we even had a chef in
our group. We operated an art
gallery and furniture shop, a café, a
restaurant in Osaka... and then we
had a studio space in the gallery too.
One day, he came to the space
with a mutual friend who introduced
us and we wound up making an ex-
hibition in our gallery space. He had
the idea of constructing rooms and
houses in the gallery... That’s the
beginning of our collaboration. We
called the exhibition S/M/L, so we
made a small room and a medium
sized one and a large one.
It was supposed to be one project,
we had no contract or plan for the fu-
ture or anything. But when we were
finished making it, we had a lot of
beer to celebrate and we started won-
dering if we not only needed S/M/L,
but also C and B and Q... or some-
thing, from A to Z... a lot of houses.
You know, ‘let’s create, like, a whole
town or something!’ and it was just
completely like a drunken talk. So af-
ter a while we collaborated on more
projects and made more houses. And
after three years we had a chance to
do a quite huge exhibition in a town
called Hirosaki, Nara’s hometown.
yn: I was born there.
HT: It’s a northern town in Japan.
And it has this huge warehouse. We
filled up more than A to Z; we had
44 houses and space, and some big
installations. We literally created a
village in the exhibition. So that’s
how it evolved. Then we started
making more projects together,
mostly in Europe.
HSM: You two create big spectacles
with your collaborations, a
combination of design and sculpture
and drawing and architecture – it’s
a great way to view art. By bringing
your talents together, do you have
a clear object in mind? Is there
something you want to accomplish
by it, or is it merely a way to make
the show more fun?
yn: I like to make paintings by
myself, and I like to work by myself.
However, showing with other people
makes things much more fun.
That’s another thing: I’ve never
thought that an exhibition must be
serious or the installation must be
serious... and after the collaboration,
I thought that the exhibition should
be fun for me, not just for the
people. Maybe for the people too, but
first for me.
HT: We have to enjoy it.
yn: Yeah, we have to enjoy it.
Otherwise the audience can’t feel
the fun.
lHH: What brings you to Iceland?
yn: What... I don’t know (laughs).
My gallerist from Berlin introduced
me to this museum. Yeah, that’s
why... yeah. Why not? Anyway, I love
Björk and Sigur rós.
lHH: Have you been a long time
here?
HT: Just for three or four days. Since
Friday night.
yn: And tomorrow, we’ll tour the
country. In a minibus.
lHH: What was is the first thing you
guys noticed about Iceland?
yn: I was born in the North of
Japan, in a pretty small town.
Smaller than Reykjavik. The
landscape here is very similar. It
wasn’t a typical Japanese town.
You didn’t see so many billboards,
especially when I was young. Like
here. Nothing, just the houses.
I remember so many childhood
experiences I’m reminded of
here. The sky is same as above my
hometown.
Yoshimoto Nara’s exhibit, The Crated Rooms,
is ongoing at Listasafn Reykjavíkur: Hafnar-
hús. It will be open until January 3rd. Lóa
Hlín recently published the book Alhæft um
þjóðir (“Generalizing About Nations”) on
the OKBÆ(!)KUR imprint. Find it at quality
bookstores in Reykjavík.
IT HAS TO BE FUN
Artist Lóa Hlín Hjálmtýsdóttir interviews Artist Yoshimoto Nara. With some
questions by Haukur SM thrown in for good measure. Prepared for print by
Haukur SM and Michael Zelenko. Thanks to all our mothers – we couldn’t have
done this without being born and stuff.
HOT Artist on Artist action!
lÓa Hlín HjálMTÝSdÓTTiR
HÖRÐUR SVEinSSon