Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 66

64 ICELAND REVIEW
ART
preparing it really helped. We also started
taking fish oil,” Beth explains of the project.
SLOWING DOWN
Originally from Hong Kong, Alice, a video
animation and commercial artist, married
Ólafsfjörður local Sigurður Svavarsson in
2009, moving to Iceland the
following year. After realizing
she might not find work in
the community, she went about
creating her own. Her father-
in-law, a hobby painter who ran
a small gallery in town, offered
her the Listhús building and
her husband got to work ren-
ovating it.
“I feel like I can change my
life here,” Alice declares. “I
studied cinema but I don’t miss
it here. I needed to rethink my
life. In Hong Kong, your living
space is really small. You need
to get out. I could spend the
whole day at the cinema but
since moving here I’ve only
been to the [nearest] cinema in
Akureyri twice,” she says with a
smile. “You need to create your
own entertainment here. I can
honestly just go outside and
look at the sky here and I don’t
get bored,” she elaborates. The laid-back
lifestyle is part of Ólafsfjörður’s charm, she
says. “There’s no stress here. You have to
slow down completely to the rhythm of the
heart. It’s a bit like being at a retreat.”
For photojournalist Annie, it’s an oppor-
tunity to get away from her “hectic life in
the city,” as she puts it. “I wanted to treat
myself to this creative time here. It’s the
first time in my life that I can live without
expectations. It’s really nice. No one is ask-
ing me to do things; I don’t have to worry
about emails or deadlines,” she says, adding
that she finds it a great place to reflect.
DEALING WITH THE DARKNESS
A recurring topic of conversation is, per-
haps unsurprisingly, the impact of the short
days on the artists and their work. Alice
says the light, or rather lack thereof, is a
source of great inspiration but can also be
very tough. “The darkness, the depression,
it doesn’t hit right away but when it does it
really affects you. For the Skammdegi pro-
gram, I look for applicants who are men-
tally strong, flexible, playful and don’t take
things too seriously. I make sure they know
that it can be very challenging.” Most of
the artists admit that they crave sunshine—
especially with such a high proportion of
them being from sunny Australia.
“It’s actually been driving me a bit crazy,”
Caitlin says laughing. With the long winter
nights, Annie says she tends to sleep in,
preferring to wait until daylight to pho-
tograph when there are more people out
and about. “I’m also shooting a lot more
landscapes than I usually do,” she adds. Joe
says he finds it difficult to judge time and
is surprised by the results of his work. “I
found myself drawing bright things back
home and thought that coming here would
mean drawing dark things but it’s not like
that. I’m still drawing bright things. Maybe
it’s a reaction to the darkness.”
He and Sinéad recount their experience
of seeing the sun for the first time in two
months. “We were hitchhiking to Dalvík.
We got a lift with this older Icelandic
couple. When we came out of the tunnel
we could see the sun, it was shining in our
faces—it was so bright! We were like ‘wow!’
But the couple just put the blinds down and
kept driving. I don’t think they thought it
was anything special. I think they’re used
to it!”
South Africa-based journal-
ist Nastasya Tay, who also grew
up in Australia, and Greek
art photographer Yiannis
Hadjiaslanis have observed the
effect of the darkness on oth-
ers. “The darkness unfolded
as time went on. At first, we
worried about whether they
[the locals] necessarily see that
darkness themselves, and how
they would feel having that
reflected back at them. But
when we showed them our
work, they were much more
open to talking about their
struggles, their depression,”
Nastasya says of their art/doc-
umentary photography series.
“The junior college English
class came to see the show, and
even did a writing assignment
about their personal experi-
ence of the darkness, to con-
tribute to our project.”
CONNECTING TO THE COMMUNITY
In considering applications Alice looks
at how the artists intend on interacting
with the local population, explaining that
because of the nature of their work, pho-
tographers and journalists have had much
more of an opportunity to meet the local
residents. “I’ve met a lot of people, and
that’s happened really organically,” Annie
confirms. “I’ve just run into them, start-
ed chatting and they’ve invited me over.
People have been very generous and willing
to share.”
Another thing that has struck Annie
is how tight-knit the community is.
“Someone was telling me that they were
sad that someone from town was leaving.
PHOTO BY ANTON BENOIS.