STARA - 01.09.2014, Side 8

“I spent an entire year taking
notes on all the activities of
my best friend’s family and the
bag lady down the street”
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Why are you an artist?
Around the age of six I started my first business glue-
ing magazine collages on scraps of wood and selling
them door to door for candy money. My second
business developed a few years later as a private de-
tective with an office, hand drawn business cards and
a few clients. I spent an entire year taking notes on
all the activities of my best friend’s family and the
bag lady down the street. In high school I studied
advanced level science. I dissected a human body. It
occured to me then, that we all end as leather bags.
I’ve always wanted to know what makes people tick,
how things work, what everything means, what is
truth. Suddenly at the age of 20, I applied for art
school in Chicago. Everything clicked. An artist can
be all professions; though on a more superficial level
with much less pay. Now I have to find other jobs for
candy money. But when I’m making work, I’m alive
(love/hate) every minute of it – the investigations,
the experiments, the techniques, the success, the
failures, the results. I love the process and I still learn
something from it everytime. I make art to answer
questions for myself that I didnt even know I had be-
fore starting, and to know that ultimately there are
no definitive answers.
In a perfect world art would be ...
By default I am an optimist, but never an idealist
– I don’t often think of what-ifs. Essentially I have
no idea what an ideal world would even look like,
whose idea of perfect it would be, much less what
role art would have. In my opinion, perfection is
the engine of boredom and idealizations distract
from the enjoyment of what is already there. I like
the mess of reality as much as any ideal, like how
writing answers to any questionnaire is simul-
taneously amazingly cheesy and utterly sincere.
Motto
“There is more than one way to skin a cat” and “if
all else fails do your nails”.
Influences
Motors, film, chemistry, colors, grit, sexual impulse,
diversity, contrasts, internet, fantasy, form, cycles,
process. Favorite artist: Kenneth Anger. Favorite
color: Sea green.
What is SÍM to you?
I first came to Iceland with a SÍM residency in 2005.
So it is basically the reason I live here. I didn´t have
any plans to come to Iceland for any extended pe-
riod of time until I applied to SÍM. I spent the first
years here in studios around the city in off-venue
locations that eventually were torn down. I wanted
a stabilized work environment, and since I work a
lot with 16mm film processing I chose the building
on Seljavegur. It is a great location and the studio
has the perfect size and formality for my ‘personal
space’ needs.
What benefits do you get from being
a member of SÍM?
The main benefit for me has been the studio, and a
small grant last year for travel costs to create some
new work in Holland at a film lab there. I also enjoy
meeting the guest residents and get a fresh air from
other countries into the art scene now and then. I
would love to see more community and more com-
munication between members. The building of-
fers quiet and solitude but lacks a general buzz of
creative interactions or a coffee area to take pause
and discuss life with others. I´m looking forward
to all the positive new changes in the works for the
upcoming years!
Website: www.rebekkamoran.com/
From the s e r ies “XXXHARDMEDITATION-XPLICIT-NEWAGE”, 2014