Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Page 40

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A Feeling
‘Þessi’ was born out of pure experimentation
Words: Alice Demurtas Photo: Art Bicnick
Sara Riel - ‘Þessi’
Showing 19-25 May
Listamenn Gallery, Skúlagata 32
There’s no other way to describe
visual artist Sara Riel than fuss-
free. When we meet to discuss her
latest exhibition,
‘Þessi’, showing 19-
25 May at the Lis-
tamenn gallery, it
becomes instantly
clear that she doesn’t want to evis-
cerate her own work by indulging
in self-analysis. “I’m at a stage in
life where that bores me,” she says
firmly. “It’s truly about seeing it,
not the whole rationality of it.”
This is the first time Sara has
tackled humans as a subject of
her art; even so, at first glance her
collection of portraits seems to
be cloaked in anonymity, as one
is never able to discern the exact
characteristics of her models.
However, ‘Þessi’ (which means
“this one”) is all
about the human
experience. It ’s a
record of mood,
of states of mind,
a glimpse of stereotypes and of
the judgements we draw about
people in our everyday life. What
do we really know about some-
one, when all we see is a mask?
Into the unknown
‘Þessi’ was born out of pure exper-
imentation while Riel was work-
ing on another project. “There is
no rationality in what I’m trying
to portray. You’re stepping into the
unknown, experimenting, trying
out what pops in mind,” she tells
me. “All I’m searching for is a feel-
ing; it’s poetry; the stereotypes that
I kind of know but haven’t really an-
alysed; something we could all con-
nect to on some common ground.”
Despite stressing the impor-
tance of enjoying solitary labour,
Sara partnered with another artist
when she had to implement text
in her work for catalogue pur-
poses. Poet Kristín Ómarsdóttir
drew inspiration from her pic-
tures but delivered a totally inde-
pendent body of work. “She sent
back something really beautiful,
surreal and fitting,” Sara says. “It
also gave the piece a new layer of
meaning. But I guess it’s not for
me to explain my pictures,” she
quickly adds. “I think that’s the
beauty of poetry and visual art.”
The artist behind some of Reykjavik’s most striking murals gives us a glimpse of her new
exhibition, in which she tackles human nature and its innumerable states of being.
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