Reykjavík Grapevine


Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.06.2017, Qupperneq 44

Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.06.2017, Qupperneq 44
Art Find today's events in Iceland! Download our free listings app - APPENING on the Apple and Android stores Tree Murder And “Leaf” Erikson Lóa’s observations show a different side of Iceland Words: John Rogers Photo: Art Bicnick Why Are We Still Here? Book, out now Many visitors to Iceland might be familiar with the work of Lóa Hlín Hjálmtýsdóttir without even knowing it. Her sharply ob- served cartoons appear regularly in various Icelandic publications (including this one), and are of- ten shared widely on social me- dia. They vary between macabre vignettes, hot takes on Reykjavík streetlife and Ice- landic politics, and living room scenar- ios, often featuring chi ldren dispas- sionately observing the innate craziness of the grown-up world. They are also, as it turns out, largely autobiographical. “I re- member these moments,” smiles Lóa, “like watching the kids in my neighbourhood running af- ter the garbage truck and just thinking ‘Why are they doing that?’ And there were kids in the neighbourhood who would pee in buckets, and the other kids loved it and shouted ‘They’re peeing in the buckets again!’ I was watch- ing and feeling lonely, because it didn’t make me happy—I had the feeling of being an observer rather than a happy participant.” T he ch i ldren in Lóa’s books often seem world-wea- ry as they watch adults binge drink- ing, arguing, fighting, partying, and passing out on the sofa. “My mum and dad had a lot of alco- holic friends when I was a kid,” says Lóa, “so I was always watch- ing them behaving like luna- tics. Me and Hugleikur Dagsson were at parties together when we were kids, watching them all and saying: ‘Well, it looks like they’re going to get a divorce.’” Lóa is now a mother herself, but she still feels similar about things today. “I always feel out of place,” she explains, “so I always see things as odd and noticeable. I have a hard time at Christmas, for example— if you overthink these things, they get weird. I feel bad about having a Christmas tree. I just think, ‘Someone decided to kill this tree.’ And then I can’t get over that.” Puking from anxiety Throughout her childhood and teens, Lóa was fascinated by camp glamour, uncanny art, and all things macabre, from ‘The Add- ams Family’ to John Waters, Tim Burton and Edward Gorey. “I had a Vincent Price phobia,” she says. “I was puking from anxiety over this film called ‘Monster Club’. There was a guy who could whis- tle and melt your face! And I had a book with pictures of conjoined twins and Joseph Merrick, the El- ephant Man. I looked at that a lot.” These influences peek out from between the lines of her latest book, ‘Why Are We Still Here?’ We flick through the pages in fits of laughter as Lóa explains the sit- uations that led to each cartoon. “This one is based on a true story,” she says, “when a tourist was try- ing to convince me that Leif Erik- son is actually pronounced ‘Leaf Erikson.’ And this one was based on this disgusting, entitled tourist guy who was complaining about Icelandic women in the street...” The cartoons sometimes be- tray a weariness of Reykjavík life. Indeed, Lóa and her fami- ly have started slowly hatching a plan to move out into the coun- tryside. “I’m growing pine trees in my living room,” she says. “I have eighty little pine trees. It’s because we can’t afford to buy an apartment, so we bought some land out East instead.” But as she publishes her fourth book, and works on a play—amongst countless oth- er projects—something tells me that even if Lóa moves East, the sheep will replace the tourists, and her wry and affecting work will continue just the same. Lóa doesn't like watching people pee in buckets gpv.is/art Share this + Archives VISIT KÓPAVOGUR CULTURE HOUSES AND EXPERIENCE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM & ART MUSEUM & PUBLIC LIBRARY & CONCERT HALL & THERMAL POOL & MORE Gerðarsafn Kópavogur Art Museum Salurinn Concert Hall Náttúrufræðistofa Kópavogs Natural History Museum of Kópavogur Bókasafn Kópavogs Kópavogur Public Library Sundlaug Kópavogs Kopavogur Thermal Pool Kópavogskirkja Kopavogur Church Hamraborg 4–6 Kópavogur Bus 1, 2 & 4 SUPER JEEP DAY TOURS FROM REYKJAVÍK ICELANDROVERS.IS • INFO@ICELANDROVERS.IS • TEL: +354 587 9999 VIÐURKENND FERÐAÞJÓNUSTA CERTIFIED TRAVEL SERVICE SILVER-CLASS ENVIRONMENTAL UMHVERFISFLOKKUN i8 Gallery Tryggvagata 16 101 Reykjavík info@i8.is t: +354 551 3666 www.i8.is Stúdíó Ólafur Elíasson Marshallhúsið | Grandagarður 20 open Tuesday to Sunday 12-6pm, and Thursdays until 9pm
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Reykjavík Grapevine

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