Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.07.2010, Page 44

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2010
Art | Artists At Work
Hrafnkell
Sigurðsson
“I have always been extremely inter-
ested in the surface of things,” artist
Hrafnkell Sigurðsson tells us. “It is what
I have been exploring, and what I keep
exploring—the infinite depth of the sur-
face.”
Hrafnkell has long been one of Iceland’s
most innovative and interesting artists:
daring and complex, thoughtful and ac-
cessible, often aggressively challenging
and almost always beautiful—magnify-
ing the surface of things to reveal a rich
and hidden interior. His work over the
past two decades has ensured him a
place at the forefront of our visual arts
scene, and anyone who studies it will
know why.
We ask him what he is thinking about.
“I can’t really tell. It comes from outside.
I am constantly besieged by thoughts
and ideas, but I cannot really under-
stand where they come from or what
they mean. I just try and follow and
investigate what strikes my curiosity,
and this gets things going. Years later
I might start realising connections and
motives. But in the present I am only
chasing what appears. This is what I
enjoy about working in the field of art,
about the whole process.”
Hrafnkell will be representing Iceland
at the Liverpool Biennale in Septem-
ber, along with Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir
(AKA Shoplifter). Currently, you may
view his art at The Living Art Muse-
um (Nýló), Kjarvalsstaðir and 18 Gal-
lery (which represents him). And you
should.
HAUKUR S. MAGNúSSON
jULIA STAPLES