Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.10.2017, Blaðsíða 36

Art Find today's events in Iceland! Download our free listings app - APPENING on the Apple and Android stores
The Poetry Of Life
Ásta Fanney’s soundtrack for ‘Íó’ reconsiders
poetry and sound
Words: Alice Demurtas Photo: Juliette Rowland
It’s a stormy Tuesday night when
I meet artist Ásta Fanney Sig-
urðardóttir in the dark hall of
Hótel Holt. Desperate for peace
and quiet, we decide to hide in-
side the tiny red elevator. Ásta has
recently been asked to create the
soundtrack for a children’s play
called ‘Íó’—an all-women show
that will premiere in Tjarnarbíó
on October 29.
As she speaks, Ásta’s eyes pierce
through me, and her soft-spoken
words fill the space like a thick,
glimmering mist. She pushes the
button for the fourth floor with a
smile, and up we go, with a sono-
rous clank.
Darkness and light
Despite having made music for
years—both on her own, and with
her band aYia—this is Ásta’s first
time weaving a soundtrack for a
theatre piece. “It started as this
kind of journey, where there was
a script for it, but when it came
down to it there wasn’t really a
script,” she says. “So it was like
making something from invisible
clay.”
She began by creating long
symphony tracks in her studio, in-
spired by Hans Zimmer’s powerful
melodies, but she soon realized she
had gone too dark. “The girls were
listening, silent, still-faced and
then they said, ‘Ásta, are you going
to pay a psychologist for the chil-
dren?’” she chuckles. “The music
was really scary—super dramatic
and heavy—so I had to throw it all
away.” As if pulled down by Ásta’s
sudden gravity, the elevator starts
to descend.
Liquid lines
In the end, Ásta drew from the joy-
ous nature of the play to give the
soundtrack an upbeat electronic
jolt, that is nevertheless still in
tune with Ásta’s melancholic soul.
It’s precisely this eagerness to ex-
periment—as well as her knack for
improvisation—that gives Ásta’s
work its resonance. You can see
it in the way she swings between
thoughts, framing every word
with fluid hand gestures. She’s of-
ten been referred to as a poet, but
Ásta doesn’t like categorisations
when it comes to her work. Music,
poetry and visual arts don’t exist
in a vacuum; rather, as she says,
“It’s like lines in a swimming pool,
but the water is the same.”
It comes as no surprise, then,
that she poured her heart and soul
in an art piece that has enclosed
music, literature, poetry and
visual performance within a sin-
gle cocoon. “With the soundtrack,
I’m connecting all these elements
to the music because everything
is from the same source,” she ex-
plains, as the sound of the elevator
sliding upward once more fills our
ears. “Your vision connects to your
ears. The people that are doing the
play and the costumes do tactu-
al work—so my element in this is
making something tactual for the
ears.”
Feminine energy
It’s clear that this collaboration
took Ásta to corners of her spir-
it that she hadn’t had a chance to
explore, pondering sounds and
silences alike. Working with a
team made solely of women also
gave her work a different energy.
“These ladies have a very special
charm to them,” she ref lects.
“When I’m working with them it’s
so special—it’s a kind of healing
energy, and you’re right in it. I’ve
never been in anything so empow-
ering.”
As Ásta steps out of the eleva-
tor and into the darkness, I don’t
think she realises that she holds
some of that power too, with an in-
ner spirit that speaks a thousand
tongues, and is destined to tell a
thousand more tales.
Ásta Fanney: going up?
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:
 &
N
át
tú
ru
fr
æ
ði
st
of
a
Kó
p
av
o
g
s
N
at
ur
al
H
is
to
ry
M
us
eu
m
o
f
Kó
p
av
o
g
ur
G
er
ða
rs
af
n 

Kó
p
av
o
g
ur
A
rt
M
us
eu
m
Einar Garibaldi Eiríksson &
Kristján Steingrímur Jónsson
i8 Gallery
Tryggvagata 16
101 Reykjavík
info@i8.is
t: +354 551 3666
www.i8.is
EGILL SÆBJÖRNSSON
until 25 November 2017
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.