Iceland review - 2019, Qupperneq 80

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Iceland Review
and the outbreak of disease. “It was a dramatic
age of no colour. We had little access to the outside
world so we had to stay home and use what we had
to survive. During this time, we used simple colours
from our sheep and nature. We discovered that
bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) also gives us
a consistent, deep black colouration. People from
abroad said that Icelanders at this time looked like
they were constantly going to a funeral, always in
mourning. In reality, these were just dark times.”
Emerging from the cocoon of the Dark Ages,
Iceland fiercely regained its vibrancy once its
trade routes and connections with the world were
re-established. “We became colourful again in
the 18th century when we started importing a lot
of plants and, as a result, colours and chemistry.
Blue became a widespread colour when we began
importing indigo powder from India, which is the
best source of blue from nature. To this day, indigo
is our traditional Icelandic blue colour.”
Making history her story
Looking from above, Iceland is a divided land; dark
and light, frozen ice set against the ashen moun-
tains. Yet as you get closer to the earth, the land
of fire and ice unfolds with an extraordinary array
of colours that present the symbiotic relationship
between nature and the history of its people. It is
this thread between Guðrún’s story and the tale of
wool dyeing that neatly tie the story of Iceland as a
nation with the history of an individual; the strug-
gle for Iceland to regain its palette and the conse-
quent explosion of colour following the Dark Ages.
Although it is an isolated nation, what surprised
Guðrún the most on her discovery were the shared
similarities in wool dyeing traditions between
Iceland and other countries across the globe. “It
has been done for the same way for thousands of
years all around the world,” she discloses. “It’s
just different methods, depending on the country
and depending on the vegetation that they have.
Though the stories we tell ourselves differ, the
underlying chemistry remains the same.”

Guðrún’s studio Hespishúsið will be moving this fall
to Lindarbær farm, near Selfoss.
We discovered that bearberry
(Arctostaphylo uva-ursi) also gives us a
consistent, deep black colouration. People
from abroad said that Icelanders at this time
looked like they were constantly going to a
funeral, always in mourning.