Reykjavík Grapevine - júl. 2020, Blaðsíða 26

Female Heroes
Of Icelandic
Folk Tales
Solveig Thoroddsen brings the ancient to life
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photo: Art Bicnick
Exhibition
‘Mer er um og ó!’ runs until August
15th at Gallerí Grótta.
A woman jilted by a priest slits her
own throat. A man discovers that
his wife is actually a seal. A female
troll kidnaps a man to be her lover.
These are some of the weird
and wonderful folk
tales that Icelanders
have been familiar
with for ages. Rey-
kjavík artist Solveig
Thoroddsen, long a
fan of Icelandic folk
tales, has chosen a
selection of them to
depict in a new exhi-
bition, ‘Mér er um og
ó!’ (“I am a bit star-
tled!”), showing at
Gallerí Grótta until
August 15th.
Heroines of
Iceland’s past
“I had a collection of these books
[of folk tales] as a kid, compiled by
Jón Arnarsson and others,” Solveig
tells us. “These stories have always
been with me, and have been at the
front of my mind as I teach them,
too. Re-reading them, I wanted to
focus on the female characters in
particular.”
The choice of focus is hardly
surprising. Female characters in
Icelandic folklore are complex be-
ings. They can be noble, flawed, un-
hinged, untamable and wild. Not
just female humans, either; a lot of
them involve female trolls, or other
female supernat-
ural beings.
Sisters
taking
charge
“In Icelandic folk-
talkes, the role of
female characters
certainly makes
a strong impres-
sion,” she says.
“They are lovesick,
w i ld, mystical,
desperate, gentle,
strong, wise and
resourceful. They are doers and
initiators, in their own lives and
in [the lives of] others. They also
appear as victims of social condi-
tions and situations but, without
exception, respond to those condi-
tions in an effective manner.”
Some of the folk tales are down-
right fantastical, such as the tale
of Selsahamurinn. In this story, a
man hears a party going on outside
a cave and sees a bunch of seal skins
laying on the ground just outside it.
He takes one home and locks it in
a chest. Later, he discovers a young
naked woman crying outside, and
takes her home to be his wife. How-
ever, one day he misplaces the key
to the chest, and he returns to see
her transforming into a seal and
swimming away with a song in her
heart.
Other stories hit a bit closer to
home, such as ‘Mó"ir mín í kví kví’,
which recounts the story of a wom-
an driven mad by the ghost of her
own baby that she had left out to die
of exposure. As cruel as it sounds,
it was actually common practice
centuries ago for unwed women to
do this, rather than face the pun-
ishment that inevitably followed
having a child out of wedlock.
The ghost and the troll
Other female character who ap-
pears include ghosts, foxes and
trolls. As the common thread of
female characters runs through
all of these works, the media they
are represented in varies greatly:
there are paintings, sculptures,
embossed wood, monotypes and
more.
“I always think visually, and
want to create an atmosphere for
the viewer to experience,” Solveig
says. “And it all comes together
when these works are together in
one place. I hope that anyone vis-
iting the exhibition can feel this
atmosphere, become imbued with
this mystic feeling. Even those who
don’t know these stories should
be able to enjoy them. These are
strong characters, absolute he-
roes.”
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“Even those
who don’t know
these stories
should be able
to enjoy them.
These are
strong charac-
ters, absolute
heroes.”
"These stories have always been with me."
Beyond Human Time
25 June 2020 - 15 August 2020
ÓLAFUR ELÍASSON
i8 Gallery
Tryggvagata 16
101 Reykjavík
info@i8.is
t: +354 551 3666
www.i8.is
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