Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.10.2013, Qupperneq 32

Words
Kristján Leitma
Matthew Eismann
32
From Reykjavík To Ankara And Back
Ingimar Einarsson brings you his latest project ‘The
Capital Series’
What was the inspiration
for this series?
I did a smaller version of this project at
Chelsea College of Art and Design for my
BA degree show in London where I was
working with three buildings—one from
London, one from Las Vegas and one from
Shanghai—which I had photographed
from 2009 to 2010. When I graduated in
2011, I really wanted to create a project
that was big enough to make a lasting
impression, but small enough that I could
do it on my own. To photograph architec-
ture in every single capital city in Europe
seemed like a good idea at the time.
How did the whole project
start?
I started making these collages in 2010
when a lawyer who used to work in Hong
Kong commissioned me to make a print
with some Chinese symbols. Aside from
the symbols, he said that I could use any
of my own imagery, and it just so hap-
pened that I had recently taken a photo
of the Shanghai Financial Centre from a
very specific angle. I cut out the negative
space and only used the positive picture
of the building and repeated it a couple
of times. It was a far more simple kind of
collage than I make now, but that was the
beginning of this whole thing and it has
just become more and more complicated
over the years.
How long does it take you
to complete each piece?
It varies. Some take longer than others. I
probably have 20 to 30 versions of each
piece on the computer and sometimes I
go back to earlier versions to work with, if
the one I am working on isn't going in the
direction I like.
How has living and work-
ing in Reykjavík and Lon-
don influenced your art?
I doubt that I would be working with sky-
scrapers if I had only lived in Reykjavík.
London is a great city for inspiration. It has
so many talented people and the muse-
ums and galleries are amazing, but I have
always managed to get more done over
here in Reykjavík than when I was living
in London full-time. Having said that, all
my influences come from London. The
collaboration piece that I did with James
Harris, ‘Eye See You,’ back in 2010 had
a particularly huge impact on my work
and from then I started working on more
print-based ideas.
Where are you heading
next with the project and
when do you expect to be
finished?
I just opened an exhibition at the Ice-
landic Embassy in London with a selec-
tion of the prints so far and published a
limited edition book. This year I will be in
Nicosia, Valletta, San Marino, Sofia, Bu-
charest, Chisinau, Kiev, Minsk, Riga, Tal-
linn, Vilnius, Warsaw and Bratislava and
in 2014, if everything goes according to
plan, Ankara, Tbilisi, Baku, Yerevan, Mos-
cow, Astana, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo,
Copenhagen, Dublin, Nuuk and Tórshavn
and then I will spend the rest of the year
finishing editing the prints.
For his latest project, Icelandic visual artist Ingimar Einarsson has travelled more
than 12,000 kilometres by train for over two years, photographing modern architec-
ture in capital cities around Europe. With these photos he is creating a collection of
collage prints aptly called ‘The Capital Series,’ which is now on view at the Icelandic
Embassy in London. We met up with him at his temporary studio in downtown Reyk-
javík to find out more about this project, which is now exactly halfway finished with
26 of 52 pieces complete.
Issue 16 — 2013 Art
???
The Capital Series will be on view at the Icelandic Embassy in
London until December 18.