Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.06.2011, Qupperneq 53

ART
GALLERIES & MUSEUMS IN JUNE
Whale Watching and Puffin island
Take part in an adventure at sea into the world of
whales and sea birds all year round from Reykjavík.
elding.is
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Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Des
9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00
10:00* 10:00*
13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00
14:00* 14:00*
17:00 17:00 17:00
Puffin season
*10:00 and 14:00 departures from 1 July to 10 August
Whale Watching Schedule – All Year
Other adventures at sea
Puffin Watching May 15th - August 15th
Midnight Whale Watching June 15th - July 31st
Sea Angling May 1st - August 31st
Ferry to Viðey island all year round
Free entry to the
Whale Watching Centre.
Call us on +354 555 3565
or visit www.elding.is
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Tel: 551 2344 | www.tapas.is
Try our famous
Icelandic
Gourmet Fiest
» Starts with a shot of the infamous
Icelandic spirit Brennívín
» Smoked puffin with blueberry
“brennivín” sauce
» Icelandic sea-trout with peppers-salsa
» Lobster tails baked in garlic
» Pan-fried monkfish with lobster sauce
» Grilled Icelandic lamb Samfaina
» Minke Whale with cranberry-sauce
» World famous chocolate cake with
berry compoté and whipped cream
The only kitchen
in Reykjavík open
to 23:30 on weekdays
and 01:00 on weekends
5.890 ikr.
Modern society and culture often
promote the idea that human monsters
are twinkle-eyed, almost supernatural
geniuses, affably quoting Wilde and
Nietzsche while disembowelling people
in the most convoluted way imagin-
able. Of course, the reality is that most
‘monsters’ are repressed, delusional,
almost pathetic creatures that are only
gods inside their own heads. Yet they
walk and talk among us undetected.
See that person sitting next to you
while you read this? Yup, right now they
might be thinking of ways to use your
skin as a dress.
This idea of the ‘monster’ inside
us all was what a group of artists and
dancers led by Erna Ómarsdóttir were
looking to explore at this year’s Reyk-
javík Arts Festival. Despite being a re-
nowned dancer in her own right, I was
more aware of Erna’s work with sex bin
death metal pop band Lazyblood (fellow
Lazyblood-er, Reykjavík!’s Valdimar
Jóhannsson was also performing). But it
was safe to expect that this piece would
be pushing a few boundaries.
Arriving five minutes late, the
performance was already at full tilt
(apparently in theatre land, a 19:00
start means that it actually starts at
19:00). This meant an interminable
game of catch up as I tried to decipher
what the hell was going on. The first
half saw a series of slightly disjointed
visual set pieces that seemingly aspired
to explore the realms of the monsters
deep in our psyche. There seemed to be
a lot of inspiration from horror celluloid
going on. Stage twins Lovísa Gun-
narsdóttir and Sigríður Níelsdóttir, with
their long hair, knee length socks, and
sudden jerking movements, resembled
a cross between the dead girls from
‘The Shining’ and the killer ghost from
The Ring, while Erna herself, with her
bedraggled bedclothes, psychotic eyes
and highly suspect mothering tenden-
cies, definitely had a touch of Joan
‘Mommy Dearest’ Crawford about her.
In terms of the dancing, you could
tell who were the professional and
non-professional dancers, which meant
some scenes were more memorable
than others. The definite highpoint
though was the danse macabre
between Valdimar as death and Ásgeir
Magnússon as his victim. It was es-
pecially graceful, reminding me of the
exquisite torture a cat renders upon a
mouse before killing it.
Now this being a piece about the
heart of darkness those monsters
occupy, you’d expect some explicit im-
agery to portray this. Naturally, ‘We Saw
Monsters’ had a director’s cut full of
symbolism that would make any torture
porn addict’s knees tremble. There was
masturbation with a scythe and rubber
hands, copious nudity, transvestism,
simulated incest, death, gore and body
mortification. Perhaps I’m a dead-eyed
misanthrope inured to such things, but
for some reason this didn’t shock me
that much, especially when placed in
context with the likes of De Sade and
Herman Nitsch. What did unsettle me
though was a five second period when
the music cut out, giving way to the
orgasmic heavy breathing of Lovísa and
Sigríður in the throes of some inter-
sister rutting. Cue heavy squirming in
my chair.
While the dancing and visual scenes
took a little effort to understand, the
music (provided by Valdimar) propelled
the piece along nicely. With atonal
radiophonic electronica, hard industrial
sounds, EBM death metal, and sweep-
ing operatic ambient, it provided an
abundance of atmosphere that soothed
and battered you in equal amounts.
The show ended with a Grand Gui-
gnol finale as the characters embarked
on a religious themed orgy of self-de-
struction at an altar that was reminis-
cent of the endings to Peter Greenaway
movies in the ‘80s with its emphasis
on death, decay and the limits of the
flesh. It was all designed to pound and
overload the senses as they burned up
in heaven (or hell depending upon your
viewpoint).
“We Saw Monsters” was bewilder-
ing, punishing and definitely a little
fucked up. But you can pretty much
say the same thing about our society’s
monsters.
Art | Review
Enter The Monsters Club...
A group of local artists take a journey to the heart of darkness
BOB CLuNESS
NANNA DÍS JÓNSDÓTTIR / SNOOP-AROuND.COM
What: We saw Monsters
Where: National Theatre
When: May 20, 2011