Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.11.2017, Síða 40

Þórdís Erla Zoëga (b.1988) is a visual
artist based in Iceland. She received
her BFA degree from the Audio Visual
department of The Gerrit Rietveld Acad-
emy, Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2012
and has since exhibited widely in Ice-
land and abroad, i.e. Stockholm, Berlin,
Basel, Amsterdam and more.
In Iceland she has made works for
the Reykjavík Art Festival, Gerðarsafn,
Icelandic Dance Company and the Rey-
kjavík Art Museum. In her work she
deals mainly with intimacy, symmetry
and balance.Here are a few of her forma-
tive influences.
Film: Triadisches ballet (1922) - Oscar
Schlemmer
When studying Art History at Fjöl-
brautaskólinn í Breiðholti, I remember
when we started learning about DADA
and Bauhaus. I thought to myself: "this
is finally getting interesting." I think
DADA is still relevant and fresh to-
day even though it's a 100 year old art
movement, and the Bauhaus aesthetics
are coming back. Last year I made cos-
tumes and did set design for the Ice-
landic Dance Company for their show
DADA DANS, and this film by Oscar
Schlemmer was a big inspiration.
Impossible objects: The penrose trian-
gle (1934) - Oscar Reuterswärd
Impossibility in its purest form. These
simple objects make sense at first
glance, but if you look closer, you see
that they are impossible. Works in
which you have to take a moment to re-
alise what you're looking at really speak
to me, and this geometrical form keeps
sneaking back into my own work.
Installation: Frost activity (2004) -
Ólafur Elíasson
This piece is a large scale installation
that uses architecture and geometrical
shapes to trick the eye and the percep-
tion of space. I wish I could have seen
it when it was exhibited at Hafnarhúsið
in 20044—I have a mild obsession with
optical illusions, symmetry and floor
materials.
Object: Persian carpets
There were always a lot of persian car-
pets in my family home. I associate car-
pets with family life. I started drawing
and painting carpets when I was really
homesick living in Berlin. What I like
about them is that each one is unique
and they are never perfect even though
they strive for symmetry and balance.
Installation: High Plane VI (2007) - Katrín
Sigurðardóttir
I stumbled upon Katrín Sigurðardót-
tir’s work ‘High plane’ in 2007 at Ice-
land’s Museum of Art. I remember
how excited I felt when climbing up the
stairs, not knowing what was above me,
and putting my head through the hole
at the top of stairs. I was immersed in a
land of ocean and glaciers and saw an-
other head bobbing around on the oth-
er side of the space amongst glaciers.
Two giants in nature. I think this work
sparked my interest in making works
where the viewer is also a participant.
Video: David Attenborough - Deep ocean
- Lights in the abyss
The beauty of the unknown and how
much there is that we don’t know about
our world and will never know. Our
world is sci-fi.
Installation: Zimoun - Sculpting Sound
Zimoun uses really simple compo-
nents to make large-scale installations
with paper boxes, motors and ping
pong balls to create artificial nature
sounds.
Culture 40The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 20 — 2017
DADA And The
Beauty Of The
Unknown
MAKING OF
AN ARTIST
Words:
Þórdis Erla Zoëga
Photo:
Art Bicnick/
Subjects own
Inventing an Icelandic tribal visual language
gpv.is/making
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