Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.06.2018, Blaðsíða 44

44The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2018Culture
Curver Thoroddsen is an artist, musician,
and one half of experimental electric
band Ghostigital. These are a few of the
formative influences that made him the
prolific multidisciplinarian he is today.

The Final Countdown and pop culture
I was ten years old and Iceland was
rapidly opening up to popular culture.
Before 1986 all radio and television was
government run, with no TV on Thurs-
days and during the whole month of July.
When the law changed, Bylgjan and Stöð
2 started broadcasting, and music videos
started flowing in. I was at my friend
Danni’s place when Final Countdown
came on, and we both immediately knew
we wanted to be rock stars. I ran home
and told my mom and that I would al-
ways wear my new Moonboots while
on stage.
Smekkleysa and Iceland's underground
The energy and the colourful characters
connected to “record label” Smekkleysa
had a huge influence on me. Surrealist
poet Sjón; the playful Sugarcubes and
Risaleðan; time machine rockabillies
Langi Seli & Skuggarnir; up-to-no-good
book nerds Ham; and Bless, led by Dr.
Gunni, who I thought was really some
kind of a doctor until I was 14 years old.
Smekkleysa was an awesome collective
of people and their impact on the whole
Icelandic art scene was very positive.
It made me super interested in the
brewing Icelandic underground scene
at the time. I bought every compilation
cassette, listened to and taped count-
less radio interviews, and tried to see
as many concerts as my parents let me
sneak into. So you can just imagine how
happy I was when Smekkleysa released
my debut album, ‘Haf,’ in 1994.
Reptilicus and industrial noise music
On a Smekkleysa compilation tape, I
found a track by industrial cyberpunks
Reptilicus. I totally shat myself. Both be-
cause of the awesomeness, and because I
had never heard such dark and horrify-
ing music before. I became their biggest
fan, and would stalk Jóhann Eiríksson
taking the bus home from his work at
an industrial factory. They opened up
the world of noise, darkness and exper-
imental music to me, and to the rest of
Iceland at that time. I’m an incredibly
lucky fanboy to be currently remastering
the whole Reptilicus catalog for their
30th anniversary.
Conceptual Art and Relational Aesthetics
I was always interested in making
art, but was never good at drawing
or painting. So my first art world he-
roes were those who made art beyond
image-making, and used conceptual
means for their creations. Andy Warhol
and Duchamp were my first obvious
influences. During our first months in
the Icelandic Art Academy, the teachers
whipped us into the moment. It was a
real eye (or I should rather say mind)
opener. Learning about On Kawara, Ro-
man Opalka, Richard Long and Rirkrit
Tiravanija was a game changer for me. I
started doing works that fused together
my love of popular culture and interac-
tion of the viewer by inserting myself
into the everyday media, usually with
some kind of a performance. Much lat-
er, during my Masters studies, I found
out that this way of working had been
dubbed Relational Aesthetics.
Jam and weird dark comedy
Holy shit! How in the world was Chris
Morris even allowed to do Jam? In today’s
PC environment it would never happen.
I was touring with Mínus around the
UK in a nightliner with two other metal
bands, and they had Jam on VHS. Far
above the music, drugs and people, Jam
was the most hardcore thing on the bus.
It is the best thing I have ever seen! I
have always been a fan of weird and ab-
surd comedy like Monty Python, Konfe-
kt, Look Around You, Nighty Night and
such, but Jam really takes the cake. It’s
so dark and fucked up that you can only
watch one at a time. When showing it to
my students I have to skip every other
scene so I will not get fired. There were
only six Jam shows made but they are so
dense that it’s still a goldmine. Nothing
comes close— not even Rick and Morty.
Sensational and abstract Hip Hop
I heard a track once in 12 Tónar record
store, and for some reason left the store
without asking what it was. I was per-
plexed by it. I couldn’t figure out what
it was, but it stayed with me, brewing
in the back of my head. For months this
weird track would pop up in my mind. It
was hinting at some new way of making
music—an enigma. Six months later, I
couldn’t take it any more. I had to know
what this was. The guys at 12 Tónar
helped me find the perpetrator. It was
NYC rapper Sensational’s debut album,
“Loaded With Power.” Holy mother of
god! It’s the 3rd best album in the world,
with a whole new level of creativity. I
ate up the WordSound catalogue, and
other abstract hip hop following that,
like Cannibal Ox and Dälek. I now have
every Sensational release ever made,
and even made it into the documentary
about him because I love him so much.
The first time I went to New York was
to record Sensational for the Ghostigital
album. He has been a guest on all of our
“pop” records and is on our upcoming
album.
Stan Brakhage and experimental Cinema
When doing my Masters degree at The
School of Visual Arts in New York I felt
that my whole news-media-perfor-
mance-thingy had played itself out. I
had gotten tired of it as a technique
and, in a way, I guess I could sense the
change that social media would have
on everyday culture. I wanted to learn
something new, and was interested in
video art. I took a course on experi-
mental cinema with Amy Taubin that
changed my life. She opened up a whole
new world for me, and a different view
of filmmaking. Stan Brakhage’s ‘Win-
dow Water Baby Moving’ had the deep-
est impact on me. It’s a film piece show-
ing the homebirth of his first daughter.
At the time my then-wife was expecting
our son, so I was, of course, emotionally
vulnerable to the subject. But woah—
the beauty is almost unbearable. Like
all Brakhage’s work, it’s silent (so as to
not interfere with the film) but it feels
incredibly LOUD in itself. The intensity
is beyond anything I’ve seen before or
since. At the time it was made, 1959, not
even doctor candidates were allowed
to witness a birth. So the film is also
historically remarkable. I delved into
the world of experimental cinema and
have not come up since.
MAKING OF
AN ARTIST
Words:
Curver
Thoroddsen
Photo:
Timothée
Lambrecq
Hip Hop And Homebirths
With Curver Thoroddsen

A fine figure of a fellow