Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.06.2015, Qupperneq 32

32 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 8 — 2015ART
Guðrún is busily preparing for the
opening of an exhibition by her son,
the celebrated contemporary artist
Ragnar Kjartansson, at Reykjavík’s i8
Gallery. The work on show is entitled
‘Me and My Mother’, and features
four videos, filmed five years apart, in
which Guðrun spits repeatedly in her
son’s face. The work is provocative; it
seems to troll the viewer for reaction,
whilst somehow coming off as simul-
taneously transgressive, melancholy,
and like a humourous art-prank.
It began with a phone call, fifteen
years ago. “Ragnar called, and asked
me, ‘Would you be in a performance
I’m going to do?’” explains Guðrún.
“And of course, I said, ‘Yes darling!
Anything you want.’ I’d do anything
for that boy! So I asked, ‘What will I
be doing?’ and he said, ‘Well. You’ll
be spitting on me.’ I said right away,
‘Okay! I’m just glad it’s not the other
way around!’ It was quite a relief.”
Guðrún never hesitated in agreeing
to the performance. “He knew I would
agree to whatever nonsense he would
start, right from the beginning,” she
laughs.
Keep it in the family
Ragnar often includes his family and
friends in his work, as seen in the
performance ‘Song’ (2011), which fea-
tured three of his nieces, and in the
ambitious multi-screen film ‘The Visi-
tors’ (2012), in which Ragnar formed
an ensemble cast of music-scene
friends to perform in a grand US man-
or house. Over the years, Guðrún has
gotten used to being called upon to
take part.
“I remember when he was finish-
ing art school,” she recalls, “he had a
performance—an opera. He made the
scenery. And there he was, in cos-
tume, with curly white hair. He was
there singing, for a whole week, from
one o’clock to six o’clock each day.
Singing, and eating. So I was there
warming up the meals he’d be eating,
and on the fifth day, he came out and
said, ‘Mother, I’m so glad! I haven’t lost
my voice, or been taken to the men-
tal hospital! I think this is going fine! ’”
She laughs, but then furrows her brow,
and continues: “He often pushes him-
self too far, in his mother’s opinion.
But you know how it is—you love your
mother, but you won’t take her advice.”
Guðrún is a big personality, bus-
tling around the house as she recounts
anecdotes, takes calls, and points out
paintings and photographs by her art-
ist friends. She admits, whilst showing
me an early Ragnar painting, which
happens to feature a movable new-
born baby that pops up from between
its mother's legs: “I never expected
this spitting piece to become so fa-
mous! It seems to be appreciated all
over the world.”
A tale of two cities
Ragnar seems to take pleasure in shar-
ing his work, his travels and his tri-
umphs with his family, and especially
Guðrún. When travelling to be with him
at the Venice Biennale proved a little
pricey for Guðrún, Ragnar asked if she
could be flown in to serve Icelandic fish
soup at his opening. When he had a big
opening in New York City, he called on
another prominent family member to
help make it possible.
“When Ragnar was in New York
City,” recalls Guðrún, “he was doing a
work based on 'The Marriage of Figaro',
repeating it again and again, the way he
does. Björk is a relative of ours—I’m her
grandmother’s sister—and she invited
us to stay at her flat in New York.”
Guðrún didn’t have the energy to
stay out for the inevitable wrap party.
“I went to bed early,” she smiles, “as I
usually do. But sure enough, he came
to see me at seven or eight o’clock in
the morning, still slightly drunk, and
said, ‘Mother, we got the most wonder-
ful review in the New York Times!’ And
he sat on the end of the bed and read it
out to me. So that’s my memory of New
York. He always finds ways for me to be
there.”
Laughter in the dark
As ‘Me And My Mother’ has become
more visible—and infamous—Guðrún
has found herself with some explaining
to do. “I have many old friends, some
of whom I’ve known for fifty years or
more,” she says. “One of them, Joanna,
said to me, ‘Did you know, you can see
work by Ragnar online, with you spit-
ting on him! What nonsense is this?’
She’d been telling people what good
friends Ragnar and I are, you see. And
I said, ‘Joanna, I really don’t know why
this work is like that...’ It’s been quite a
lot of work trying to convince some of
my friends about it!”
Despite her reluctance to speculate
on what the piece means (one of the
first things she says after opening the
door is a pre-emptive “Please don’t ask
me what it means! I don’t know!”), the
tragi-comedy of the piece is not lost on
Guðrún. “I’ve always agreed that com-
edy should be painted onto a black sur-
face,” she explains. “In my experience
in the theatre, if you can make people
laugh, they open up their hearts… then,
they trust you, and you can really talk
about serious things.”
Nevertheless, making the work was
understandably challenging for the
proud and doting mother. “It’s not easy
to spit on someone who’s done nothing
but make you happy in life,” she says,
“which he has. All my children have.
He’s the youngest, with this delight-
ful sense of humour… but, knowing
Ragnar, I know there’s deep sorrow in
him, too. Deep sorrow, behind a smiling
face. But a son doesn’t come home and
tell you about all his sorrow! It goes into
the work, instead.”
Guðrún isn’t sure if there’ll be an-
other addition to the work in five years’
time, saying: “I’m not sure if there’ll be
any more spitting! I’ll be eighty-four
in five years—I think I might not be up
to spitting so much!” But something
tells me that if Ragnar comes calling,
Guðrún will be ready to step up to the
plate once again.
“I never look forward to seeing a film when I’m in it,” says
actress Guðrún Ásmundsdóttir, 79, as she pours coffee and
lays out cheese and biscuits on the dining table of her Ves-
turbær home. “But it will be okay, I’m sure.”
Words
John Rogers
Photos
Axel Sigurðarson
Great
Expectorations
Ragnar Kjartansson’s mother
Guðrún has been spitting in her
son’s face for fifteen years
TVEIR HRAFNAR listhús, Art Gallery
Baldursgata 12 101 Reykjavík (at the corner of Baldursgata and Nönnugata, facing Þrír Frakkar Restaurant)
Phone: +354 552 8822 +354 863 6860 +354 863 6885 art@tveirhrafnar.is www.tveirhrafnar.is
Opening hours: Thu-Fri 12pm - 5pm, Sat 1pm - 4pm and by appointment +354 863 6860
TVEIR HRAFNAR
listhús, Art Gallery
offers a range of artwork by
contemporary Icelandic artists
represented by the gallery,
selected works by acclaimed
artists and past Icelandic
masters.
Hallgrímur Helgason
Húbert Nói Jóhannesson
Jón Óskar
Óli G. Jóhannsson
Ragnar Þórisson
Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir
Also works by:
Guðbjörg Lind Jónsdóttir
Hulda Hákon
Sara Oskarsson
Kristján Davíðsson
Nína Tryggvadóttir
– among others
i8 Gallery www.i8.isJune 11–August 22Me and My Mother