Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.06.2010, Blaðsíða 36

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07 — 2010
To celebrate the five-year anniversary of me up and
moving my ceramics workshop to Iceland from
Ireland, I am curating a retrospective of some of
my favourite pieces. The mission of my work is to
explore aesthetic properties latent within natural
materials readily available from the world around
me, and to transform these materials into useful
totems of everyday life: invariably, tea bowls. I love
tea!
For example: volcanic ash from various erup-
tions (Veiðivatn 1477, Hekla 1875, Eyjafjallajökull
2010!) can be excavated and then melted in the ce-
ramic kiln at very high temperatures to create a
beautiful glaze on the pottery (a glaze is not like
paint: it’s more like creating glass via a kind of al-
chemy). In fact, ash from all kinds of incinerated
stuff: cigarettes, banana skins—even corpses—
can reveal amazing results at various tempera-
tures! I shall be exhibiting a wide variety of these
experiments at the show.
I come from a background of Critical Theory
and Architecture but many years ago—dis-
mayed and frustrated by the bureaucracy and
the bullshit—I chucked all that over my shoulder
and headed off in pursuit of something unmedi-
ated and authentic: something REAL. Around this
time, an archaeological dig was taking place near
my home, so I got down on my knees and asked for
an opportunity to dig. The work was hard, but led
to an epiphany, which changed the course of my
life. Finding a shard of local prehistoric pottery in
my neighbourhood revitalised my understanding
of everyday life and the Earth on which it happens.
It’s a shame that "craft” or "Hönnun" is gen-
erally dismissed as being necessarily of less value
than more conceptual artwork. I reckon it is pre-
cisely because of their position of origin and usabil-
ity within everyday life that so called ‘traditional
crafts’ are disqualified from the sphere of modern
art and therefore considered less meaningful. Per-
sonally, I couldn’t give a toss about the modernism
debate anymore, but this status coupled with the
reality of insanely inexpensive imports of cheap-
ass mass-produced stuff means that those of us in
the local craft business can barely give our stuff
away for free, let alone make a living maintaining
what are often vital, indigenous industries, i.e. not
just for the tourists.
It seems that for a variety of reasons, in the
circumstances in which we find ourselves via glo-
balization, technology and advertising, people are
rather confused or, dare I say, misled about the
valuation of "The Object" as it occurs in many fac-
ets of daily life.
The work of art in the age of mechanical re-
production
I have never liked using moulds to reproduce my
bowls. I find both the process and results to be
monotonous uninspired and sterile. However I
constantly find my work unfavourably compared
to the "perfection" of mass produced stuff of the
big household stores. As if I should hide any trace
of the human hand from my work. On the con-
trary: I accentuate it. The moulding technique was
originally developed as a means of copying and
reproducing the works of the artist. Now, appar-
ently, the "craft artist" must copy the uniformity
and homogeneity of the machine in order to be
considered good.
Is the photocopy of a person’s signature to be
considered more accurate/authentic than another
signature by that person? Why should the quality
of the work of a realist painter be judged according
to "how much it looks like a photograph"? In short,
a humanist reality is surpassed by a mechanical
reality. This is plain fucked up.
I hope the reader will not consider this to be a
self-indulgent rant about the under appreciation of
one man’s awesome skills, but rather a highlight-
ing of the evolving crisis of indigenous vernacular
skills unfolding right now, right across the board.
(Sigh.) Anyway, as someone once said "you don’t
find the passions that you seek, but other ones will
find you". I’m sticking with mud and I’ll be enjoy-
ing this journey, this upward spiral, wobbles and
all, till I return to the earth from whence I came.

Fuck you IKEA.
Show opens Saturday, June 5 at 17:00. It runs for a week in a
basement space beneath Einar Ben Restaurant, Ingolfstorg,
101 Reykjavík.
What is Weirdcore?
A couple of years back we felt that the Icelandic
electronic music scene was lacking. There was a
low point in both concerts and album releases.
It lacked a centralised entity to hold it together.
That's why we started doing the concert series, fo-
cusing on various types of electronica. Everything
from ambient to hardcore; basically all the artists
we liked and wanted to promote.
Our goal was to make this scene more active,
approachable and provide it with a live venue with
a good sound system. In the future we hope to
gain international recognition for our little scene
and the fantastic music it produces.
What are some of the people associated with
Weirdcore? What makes a band or artist eli-
gible for Weirdcore status?
Sigurbjörn and I handle most of the organisation,
Tomio Newmilk, of Quadruplos, handles most
of the artwork and then there are the artists that
share our passion for the scene that have worked
with us on getting this off the ground, such as
Marlon Pollock, Futuregrapher, DJ Vector and all
the artists. To be eligible to play a Weirdcore night
you have to have an interesting electronic sound
and be able to perform that live. That's pretty
much it.
What's with the name? Is it meant to scare
away outsiders? "Weird" music doesn't usu-
ally have a broad appeal.
For us weird means interesting. Core means a
melting pot of all genres of electronic music and
its surrounding culture. We hope that our efforts
will eventually result in a broader appeal.
What's your stance on the state of electronic
music in Iceland?
In our opinion the state of the scene has never
been better. There seem to be more people mak-
ing music and the growing interest fuels fur-
ther creation and better parties. There are a lot
of young producers coming out of the woodwork
with new and interesting styles. Artists check out
each other’s shows and gain inspiration amongst
themselves. We see that as developing an "Icelan-
dic electronic sound" which we hope to market ex-
cessively internationally.
There seems to be a big audience, at least ac-
cording to all the kids that buy tickets to see
foreign dJs at Broadway and stuff. Has Ice-
land's community of electro-artists not been
able to reach these people (with the possible
exception of GusGus)?
Most of the artists we are working with are still
working on establishing their name, although
some have considerable fame in their respective
genres, for instance Ruxpin and Yagya. ATG’s
dubstep/breakbeat nights have sold out at NASA,
playing music very similar to our own. So there
seems to be a lot of potential for this brand of mu-
sic in the foreseeable future. We are still working
on gaining mainstream appeal, but the potential
is definitely there.
Are the artists making music that's more ex-
perimental or weird?
From a mainstream perspective, perhaps, yes. But
a lot of it is very sophisticated, cutting edge and
danceable. So if people don't jump on the band-
wagon now, in five years they will.
What are some things you have planned for
2010, the weird-year?
More concerts, more club nights, more web activ-
ity. We plan to release albums by Futuregrapher,
Anonymous, Biogen and more. We are also work-
ing on setting up our shows internationally.
Who is the weirdest weirdcore-er? How
about the normalest one?
The normalest one is probably Yagya, because he
works in a bank, but he's still weird. As for the
weirdest one, we're still looking.
The state of Icelandic electro now vs. ten
years ago? Or twenty?
Now that we have the internet, self-promotion is
more accessible for artists and finding new music
is a lot easier. For the electronic musician, play-
ing live is easier since the advent of powerful lap-
tops and other music gear. Also, people are much
more receptive to electronic music now than they
were some time ago. Everyone has had nights out
listening to techno and other kinds of electronic
music.
Weirdin’ Up Iceland
Music | Interview
Words
Rebecca Louder and
Haukur S. Magnússon
Photography
Julia Staples
Feeling that the Icelandic electronic
scene was not all it should be, Tanya
Pollock and Sigurbjörn Þorgrímsson
fired up the Weirdcore collective two
years ago. Rounding up a bunch of art-
ists who previously had less exposure
and opportunities to play live—folks
such as yagya, Biogen, Futuregrapher
and Tonik—they began throwing monthly
events to showcase a different side of
the local talent. They also release yearly
compilations that folks can download
for free and are working on releasing
some of their acts internationally. The
Grapevine had a chat with Tanya about
her exciting collective and what they
are up to.
“For us weird means interesting.
Core means a melting pot of all
genres of electronic music and its
surrounding culture.”
That dude on the photo with Tanya Pollock is none other than fabled
electronic artist Biogen. Check out his mustic ASAP.
Art | Craft
Melting Iceland Since 2005
GREG BARRETT
JULIA STAPLES