Iceland review - 2019, Síða 100

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Iceland Review
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PROBABLY THE
the ducks, even if you see it only once, you know it’s a
ritual that is repeated. I often feel the bigger concept is
more interesting than exactly what’s happening in front
of you.”
Ragnar is most often referred to as a performance
artist. While he pulls from music and theatre, the
scenes he stages with actors or musicians are
transformed into visual art. For him, the repetition
is what differentiates his work from theatre and
music. “I often use repetition and time in order to
make narrative art become more like a sculpture or
a painting. It has no beginning or end, but becomes
frozen in time.”
Respectable riffraff
Though he’s one of a handful of Icelandic artists to
gain international attention, Ragnar doesn’t feel any
pressure to excel – not from his own nation, at least. “I
really don’t feel the pressure to make it. Not like abroad
where you constantly feel that you’re either somebody
or nobody. I like it that people in Iceland don’t take
me as seriously as they do in other countries. I’m still
that guy from Trabant who used to go by Rassi Prump
[which could be translated as Butt McFartson] and
that feels good to me. In other countries, I’m a terribly
respectable artist.”
It’s not just that the people of Iceland know his roots,
where he came from and what he did before, he also
thinks Icelanders have a different way to think about
art and success. “I’m so happy to be from this land of
losers. It would be terrible to come from the US, where
everything revolves around winning. Here, there’s no
pressure to stand out and that gives you an incredible
freedom.”
According to Ragnar, there’s less separation
between artists and other people in Iceland. “It feels
so good that around here, there is the same level of
respect for professionals as amateurs. I think of it as
an advantage. I can be this super cool artist with an
exhibition at the Met, but there’s no real difference
between me and a cab driver who paints in his free
time.” Devoting his life to art also frees Ragnar in some
ways from traditional metrics of success. “I think if
you’re an artist, you’re already riffraff,” Ragnar quips.
“If you’re looking for respect from your fellow citizens,
you find something else to do. You become a doctor or
a lawyer. But it’s more fun to be in the riff raff business.
There is a certain respect for riff raff in Iceland, too.”