Reykjavík Grapevine - sep. 2019, Blaðsíða 42

42The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14— 2019
Threads
That Bind
Sláturhúsið’s summer exhibition
interweaves storytelling with visual poetry
Words: a rawlings Photo: John Rogers
Text-based Art Exhibition
‘Sunnifa’ and ‘ég er að deyja’ are on
display at Sláturhúsið in Egilsstaðir
until September 15th
“I wanted to tell this story because
I think it’s highly relevant,” says
Kristín Amalía Atladóttir, “not
only as a reaction to the Me Too rev-
olution. It’s also a kind of reaction
to the very uncomfortable things
that are developing in America
and Poland, where women’s repro-
ductive rights are being limited.”
Kristín Amalía is the director of
Egilsstaðir’s cultural centre, Slá-
turhúsið. She is also the origina-
tor of this summer’s multimedia
storytelling exhibition ‘Sunnifa.’
While literature is not the usual
focus of Sláturhúsið’s programme,
this exhibition runs simultaneous-
ly with Kristín Gunnlaugsdottir’s
exhibition of embroidered text.
The story of Sunnifa
Kristín Amalía elaborates on her
exhibition’s raison d’être: “This
is a 300-year-old story about
Sunnifa, who became a victim
of strict laws regarding incest,
unwanted pregnancies, and kill-
ing babies. It ’s an incredible
story that took place over twenty
years. Very little is known apart
from official documentation.”
To prepare Sunnifa’s story in
an exhibition space, Kristín col-
laborated with a designer and an
illustrator. “We only had the sto-
ry itself, no visuals. So the chal-
lenge was to make an exhibition
that would sustain interest al-
though it was mostly text-based.”
Historical whodunit
Kristín Amalía’s research into
Sun n ifa’s l i fe revea led that
the legal case was the prima-
ry source indicating her ex-
istence, as there were other-
wise no birth or death records.
“She’s nowhere on record.
We’re trying to bring her to life,
to give her a face and a presence.
All the men are silhouettes; she
and the children are the only
ones with faces in the exhibition.”
The exhibition includes a book
written by Kristín Amalía, with
all of the facts that are known
about Sunnifa and her legal case.
“When there’s a bit of bias, I put
a footnote. There is a whodunit
in the end. You don’t want to in-
f luence people. They can col-
lect all the facts that are known
and make up their own minds.”
Text meets textile
For her exhibition ‘ég er að dey-
ja’, visual artist Kristín Gunn-
laugsdóttir embroiders common
phrases on large wall canvases.
According to Sláturhúsið’s direc-
tor, “these sentences come from
the mouths of kids and teenag-
ers, but have a broader relevance.
“K r i st í n Gu n n laugsdót t i r
picked up sentences and gave
them a different context, like
‘I wish she was dead.’ Teenag-
ers do say that but, like I said, it
has a different context in rela-
tion to the Sunnifa exhibition.”
Each canvas focuses on a word or
phrase, embroidered in red thread
on a burlap-coloured background.
One canvas centers ‘mamma
mín’ (Icelandic for ‘my mother’),
while another displays a phrase
that translates as ‘just as good I
am not beautiful’. The sentences
are terse, complex with meaning
despite their succinctness. Red
thread resonates as life-blood,
anger, love, or an editor’s red pen.
Ég er að deyja
On one canvas, Kristín repeatedly
embroidered the phrase ‘ég er að
deyja’ (‘I am dying’, in English).
The capacity to write the sentence
is slowed down dramatically by us-
ing needle and thread to embed it
on the canvas. The slower engage-
ment with letters and words moves
towards ex haustion through
the repetition of this phrase.
“As it progresses,” Kristín
Amalía explains, “you’re moving
closer to the meaning of the sen-
tence. ‘Ég er að deyja.’ We’re dy-
ing from heat, we’re dying from
whatever. I think this is the only
true statement we can make.”
Kristín Amalía stresses the
interconnections between her
Sunnifa exhibition and Kristín’s
work. “‘Ég er að deyja’ is in direct
relation to the Sunnifa exhibi-
tion, which is all about death—
death is hanging over her head
for the twenty years of the story.”
Ekki, an echo
Yet another canvas bears the sole
word ‘ekki’, which means ‘not’
in Icelandic. “When you’re cry-
ing,” says Kristín Amalía, “the
gasping sound, this is ‘ekki’.
Possibly it relates to ‘echo’.”
Kristín Amalía sources an in-
tertextual connection between
the prominence of ‘ekki’ in the
exhibition and its relationship
with sorrow. “There was a book
of poetry published last Christ-
mas called ‘Requiem’ by Gerður
Kristný. It’s about sexual violence,
an incestuous incident that hap-
pened twenty years ago when
Gerður was a journalist. In the
book, Gerður writes about church
and benches, which rhymes in
Icelandic. ‘In the church of doom
and sorrow, there are benches
made out of sorrow.’ I don’t know
if Kristín was aware of Gerður’s
lines when she was playing with
this word, but it resonates.”
After the flood
“I’m working on two other proj-
ects related to the ‘Sunnifa’ ex-
hibition,” Kristín Amalía shares.
“There was a woman named Hall-
dóra born in Seyðisfjörður who
was drowned in the valley. She
was innocent. I’m working to get
her a posthumous pardon. This is
difficult because there’s no such
law in Iceland. I’m waiting for a
phone call to see what’s best with
the government, whether to cre-
ate new laws or a new category of
pardoning posthumously. Hope-
fully, I’ll get this through parlia-
ment and we’ll be able to put up a
big memorial, using her as a rep-
resentative of all of these women
who were victims of sexual abuse.”
Ekki. It makes one feel emotional.
Woven words
Books
Austurmörk 21
Hveragerði
listasafnarnesinga.is
14.06. | 15.09.
Open daily 12-6 pm
Free admission
Only 40 min. drive from
Reykjavik -on the
Golden Circle
ICELAND
MUSEUM AWARD
2018
GIFT
PEOPLE
TO
THE
THE
The oldest
diner
B U R G E R S – S A N D W I C H E S
BBQ RIBS – STEAKS – FISH
WRAPS AND LOCAL DISHES
V I S I T
I N R E Y K J A V Í K
W W W . G R I L L H U S I D . I S
TRYGGVAGATA 20, TEL: 5623456