Iceland review - 2012, Qupperneq 16

14 ICELAND REVIEW
CONvERSINg WITH CLAy
Ceramics and glass artist Kristín Sigfríður Garðarsdóttir talks about her
love for Japanese ceramics tradition and Icelandic light, the fleeting boundar-
ies of art and design and elfish cups that stimulate the brain.
I guess I’m a late-bloomer,” declares Kristín Sigfríður
garðarsdóttir when we meet in her studio in Kópavogur
one rainy autumn day. Born in Hafnarfjörður in 1959,
Kristín graduated from the Arts and Crafts Academy of
Iceland in 1997, moving on to studying at the Danish
Design School in Copenhagen from 1998-99 where she specialized
in ceramics and glass.
“I didn’t start studying art until after the kids were born. I’ve
always loved drawing and painting and was good at it but didn’t
believe I could make it my living. I had planned to become a
nurse,” reveals Kristín. She worked at the hospital for a couple of
years, did some other jobs, but eventually decided to become an
artist at the encouragement of her friends and family.
Now, Kristín runs Kirsuberjatréið, a gallery and design store, with
nine other female artists. She has held solo and group exhibitions
in Iceland and elsewhere Europe, and in Japan, which has a special
place in her heart. “In Iceland there is little tradition for pottery. I
find it nourishing to be in places like Shigaraki, which has a 1100-
year history for clay burning. They respect ceramic artists more.”
Kristín’s last exhibition in Japan was at the Tao gallery of
Contemporary Ceramic Art in Tokyo in 2011. Entitled ‘Faraway
Blue,’ it’s a play on the Icelandic proverb fjarlægðin gerir fjöllin blá,
literally: ‘the mountains look blue when seen from a distance. ’
“The angle changes from afar,” Kristín says in description of the
proverb. “It’s good to go away because it gives you a different per-
spective. But it’s also an illusion: the mountains aren’t blue.”
Kristín’s pieces are decorative, but functionality is important to
her as well. “I like to design beautiful things that feel good to touch
and can be used in daily life. Things on the border between art and
design,” she says. Her most popular products are so-called ‘elf cups.’
Thought of as gifts for elves and people, the curvy ceramic cups are
either to be held with the right or left hand, as indicated with fin-
By Eygló Svala arnarSdóttir
Portrait By Páll StEfánSSon additional Photos By Páll KjartanSSon