Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2016, Page 40

Art 40The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 14 — 2016
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Exhibition
Words PARKER YAMASAKI Photo BRYNJA SVEINSDÓTTIR
Eva Ísleifsdóttir enters Gerðarsafn
soggy from the mist. She tears off
her raincoat and meets me on the
north end of the museum space,
where her half of the two-artist
show ‘SCULPTURE/SCULPTURE’
is housed. Our boots squeak along
the shining floor; every movement
is amplified in a space built to
host silence and admiration. It’s a
familiar environment for Eva, the
cool confines of the art museum,
and her sculptures directly exhibit
that familiarity. Eva has worked
in museums for over a decade as a
receptionist, collections manager,
and, of course, exhibitor.
Across the hall Sindri Leifsson
has manipulated poplar trees onto
movable posts, which stand in a
3x3 grid in the museum space. His
works also spill into the neigh-
borhood: on the lawn outside the
museum, planted behind the lo-
cal church, another in a parking
lot nearby. His wide dispersal of
materials speaks quite literally to
Eva’s assertion that “in Iceland,
everybody kind of works every-
where.”
Sindri’s fascination with sculp-
ture is underpinned by a fas-
cination with movement. It’s a
counterintuitive approach to the
medium traditionally defined by
the statue, an artistic attempt at
preservation. In Sindri’s exhibit,
performers will dislodge and carry
his sculptures into new arrange-
ments every ten minutes, so that
“there is always left some trace of
what it was, which becomes part
of the piece,” Sindri says.
Eva’s sculptures too will teeter
along the line between sculpture
and performance. One major piece
will change locations through-
out the course of its residence
at Gerðarsafn. Others are to be
viewed as “props” in something
greater. The constant process of
transformation speaks to Eva’s
title for her half of the show: ‘Ex-
actly Perpetual Motion’.
Big ups
to small towns
Both Eva and Sindri were born and
raised in an area on the outskirts
of Reykjavík called Ártún. Their
proximity to Reykjavík also grant-
ed them the opportunity to closely
observe the way a city transforms,
and what that means for the way
people move about.
We talk about the construction
on Hverfisgata, and how by clos-
ing down one side street people
are forced bit by bit off of the side-
walks. We meander around the
topic of city planning for a while
before heading back home to the
familiar topic of the suburbs.
Information creation
Sindri tells us about one of his
favorite pieces, “Streamside Day”
(2003), a fictitious neighborhood
festival that the artist Pierre
Huyghe created for a newly built
suburb in upstate New York:
“Everyone is wearing like a deer
mask, or a bunny mask, grilling
some hot dogs. And now this town
celebrates this Pierre Huyghe-fab-
ricated-celebration every year.”
“And how easy it is!” Eva re-
marks “It’s just an action, just as
simple as making a decision.”
“But it is also sympathetic,”
Sindri continues. “It is easy to
make a decision and have people
maneuver in a certain way, but
then it is also sympathetic to cre-
ate new information in your sur-
roundings. I want to work on that
level as well, creating new infor-
mation that’s not trying to sell you
something, and not trying to get
anything from you, it’s just there
to offer a new perspective.”
Talking cycles and stillness with sculptors
Eva Ísleifsdóttir and Sindri Leifsson
Moving Matter