Reykjavík Grapevine


Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.12.2018, Qupperneq 20

Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.12.2018, Qupperneq 20
20 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 21— 2018 Two other performances follow, mapping out an intriguing exploration of the interplay between language, percep- tion, body and emotion. The perfor- mances are part of Haraldur’s large scale solo exhibition called “Spec- trum.” Not only a retrospective, it’s also a beautiful, personal and authen- tic investigation of what it means to be human. THE ENGLISH GARDEN Haraldur’s works necessarily include unpredictable elements of chance and contingency, effectively inviting the unexpected and the intuitive. It’s a method he has trusted throughout his life. “I’m interested in the labyrinth of perception—how people navigate through the cultural architecture of our world like an invisible building,” Haraldur explains later, as we settle down to talk in his studio. Far from the serious and authori- tative persona he had adopted at the performance a few days earlier, he triumphs now with charm. His studio is scattered with stacks of paper, finished or unfinished works, illustrating his process of working on many different pieces simulta- neously. “It’s a bit like an English garden,” Haraldur says. “There are piles of ideas, drawings, written notes, archives, catalogues… they’re visual stimuli.” Little treasures sit scattered around in unexpected places. All in all, I feel like I’m ruthlessly penetrating the space “where the magic happens.” Haraldur, however, is beaming with warmth and openness. A WITNESS OF LIFE “I see myself as a receiver,” he contin- ues. “I receive messages and work with them. Maybe it’s a little New Age.” He chuckles. “I am a witness of life.” Trusting his intuition more than anything else, Haraldur says that he often doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing during the process of creation. When the piece is finished, however, he’s able to put it into context and to connect it to one of the four notions he’s continuously working with—body, perception, emotion and language. He describes this work process with the proverb “one is wise after the event,” which is to say that the meaning and purpose of a piece only becomes clear after it has been created. When he’s selecting pieces for a show, Haraldur sometimes intro- duces an element of chance by employing a tarot-based system, wherein he lets the pieces combine to create their own narrative, or by randomly opening a page of the dictionary and constructing the show around a word he finds. “It is like a child who is asked to connect the dots on a paper,” he explains. “If the dots don’t have numbers, different people will make different forms out of them.” SILENT, SINCERE, SLEEPY, SOFT A perfect example of this intui- tive work process is a piece called “Emotional Wallpaper,” which occu- pies the entrance hall to “Spectrum” at Kjarvalsstaðir. Two walls form a tunnel that the visitor passes through to enter the exhibition space; each one bears words for different emotions, one in Icelandic and one in English, lined up in alphabetical order. The idea came in a moment that Haraldur describes as an “out-of-body experience” when he found a brochure that was part of an mental health awareness campaign. One page was a list of different emotions. He intui- tively lined them up in alpha- betical order, not knowing what he was doing at first. The resulting piece has now been exhibited many times internationally, and translated into many differ- ent languages. It unites universal emotions felt everywhere in the world in one artwork and at the same time shows how humans have developed nuanced words for emotional subcategories— such as “grumpy,” “tetchy” or “irri- tated”—but still sometimes fail to express exactly what they’re feeling. The piece reveals that commonly felt emotions connect people, but also shows that finding a shared vocabu- lary to express or explain them can also create a sense of alien- ation and distance. LINGUISTIC REVELATIONS Language has interested Haraldur since the earliest stages of his life. He was born in Finland, but he doesn’t speak the language as his family sailed to Iceland when he was just two years old. He is, however, a man of many nations, having studied in France and Germany; he was honoured with the title of “Meisterschüler” (a title given to pupils of a Masters class with an above-average perfor- mance) from the arts academy in Düsseldorf. Today, Haraldur speaks both French and German. He says that learning another language was "a revelation," and references to language are scat- tered throughout his oeuvre. Haraldur recalls being particularly intrigued by how people used gestural waiting audi- ence by a thick rope. Suddenly, Haraldur appears and takes one of the guests by the arm, and as his assistant lifts the rope, Haral- dur guides her to the seat that he has apparently chosen for her amongst a series of theatre-like rows. His assis- tant gently grabs me and guides me to another chair. This silent yet authori- tative ritual continues until everyone is seated. TRACING FACES Haraldur and his assistant put up large red banners to create a “stage”—in reality, just an unused space in the gallery—and the artist finally breaks the silence. “I need two people who are very close to each other,” he says, mysteriously. A young, curious couple tentatively volunteer. What follows is the perfect example of how Haraldur works. The two are told to stand in opposite corners of the room, one facing away from the other. Then Haraldur massages the tops of their heads, and asks them to each visualise a colour. Next, the two are asked to put their face sideways on a piece of paper in sequence, while the artist draws the outline of their profiles. As the finale, he puts the two drawings on top of each other, showing the combined image to the volunteers like a doctor presenting an X-ray. The audience watches in reverent silence as the couple receives the artwork as a gift, looking astonished as they walk back to their seats. I am stand- ing in Kjarvalsstaðir museum, where Haraldur Jóns- son, one of Iceland’s most renowned visual artists, celebrated the open- ing of his mid-career retrospective, “Spectrum,” just a few weeks ago. It’s after the museum’s opening hours and, of course, it’s already dark outside. A small group of people stand in the East wing of the building, anticipating the evening’s performance. A seating area is separated from the ▲ Galaxy (2002) Tunnel (2008) ▶ Aucoustics (1990) ◀ Spectral Rupture (2017) ▲ Anatomy Of Feelings (1998) Emograms (2011-2014) ▼ Ringing (2018)

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Reykjavík Grapevine

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