Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.10.2017, Blaðsíða 40

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On Time, Space
Memory & Energy
And why Helena Aðalsteinsdóttir’s work does not
exist within the realm of physics
Words: Alice Demurtas Photo: Blair Alexander Massie
In art as in life there are things
you get and things that you just
can’t place. You have things that
catch your eye because they’re
beautiful and those that grab you
aggressively by the collar because
they’re—let’s just say it—plain
weird.
Helena Aðalsteinsdóttir’s crea-
tions fall heavily within the second
category. Her car-crash-inspired
sculpture with a metal door that
encouraged the viewer to “ride like
the wind to feel free again,” while
car pieces were flying all around,
would leave you scratching your
head for an embarrassing amount
of time. But how many times can
you walk around a setting like this
and discover a new side of it with
every turn? How many questions
can one ask oneself about a single
sculpture?
If a piece sparks that much de-
bate, there must be something to
it and, as in most things, it’s there
somewhere, hidden and waiting
for you to find it.
The inner energy of
things
Helena is a master at hiding clues.
“I put some in each object so when
they are together they form a sto-
ryline,” she explains. “The closer
you look at it, somehow the more
clues you get and then you can
build up your own story of what’s
happening in front of you.” Al-
though it seems oh-so-calculated,
Helena works intuitively so that
even when she makes sketches the
material ends up steering the pro-
cess in its own direction. Her work
is raw, as if she were trying to get
right into things and turn them
inside out, spilling out an unpre-
dictable stream of thoughts. Far
from static, much of what Helena
does is almost liquid in its essence.
“It has a lot to do with move-
ment,” she says. “I really try to
make inanimate objects come
alive. All things store energy, no?
So I want to be able to show that
objects have this energy and that
they’ve been part of a bigger story.”
Just as Pollock waited for the brush
to guide his hand on the canvas,
Helena’s intuitions and sudden
movements give her a chance to
explore sides of her sculptures
that were unknown even to her.
Frequencies on
Sequences
Despite living in Amsterdam,
Helena has been working on a
sculpture that will be showcased
in Iceland at the Sequences Fes-
tival. Instructed to use time as
her raw material, Helena decided
to stretch her hands towards the
past and the future, exploring the
concept of technology and the way
we choose to pour our egos and
identities into it. Also, in collab-
oration with the festival and her
friend Ásgerður Birna Björns-
dóttir, Helena has been curating
‘GSM: Frequences on Sequences,’
which will channel art spaces
through radio frequencies. “Radio
is never used as an art platform,”
Helena explains. “So we thought
we’d tell the artists that they have
to think about these three min-
utes as a physical space that they
kind of install their work into.”
Perhaps Virginia Woolf was
right, and time flows inside people
rather than outside. But in Hele-
na’s work, space and matter also
cease to follow traditional para-
digms of empirical perception,
shaping a world where our minds
are just another room we can dwell
in.
Helena Aðalsteinsdóttir. On a roof.
VISIT KÓPAVOGUR
CULTURE HOUSES
AND EXPERIENCE
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
A NEW
GEOLOGICAL
EXHIBITION
& MORE
EMPLACEMENT:
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Einar Garibaldi Eiríksson &
Kristján Steingrímur Jónsson
i8 Gallery
Tryggvagata 16
101 Reykjavík
info@i8.is
t: +354 551 3666
www.i8.is
GRAND OPENING
12 OCTOBER 2017
UGH BÕÖGÂR
Open 11:30-22:00
saegreif inn. is
Geirsgata 8 • 101 Reykjavík • Tel. 553 1500 • seabaron8@gmail.com
An absolute
must-try!
Saegreifinn restaurant (Sea Baron) is like none other
in Iceland; a world famous lobster soup and a diverse
fish selection.