The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2006, Qupperneq 18

16
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 60 #1
Spotlight
by Marianne Jonasson
Hrafnhildur
Arnardottir
Hrafnhildur Arnardottir recently
exhibited her work “Left Brain, Right
Brain” at Plug In Institute of
Contemporary Art in Winnipeg. Light
brown braids representing the right side of
the brain, or creativity are organic in
design. A separate mass of dark braids rep-
resents the left side of the brain, or logic in
a more linear pattern. Together, they
resemble a large braided rug rich in texture.
The effect is beautifully interesting. I had
the opportunity to interview Hrafnhildur
at Plug In. Here is an excerpt of our con-
versation.
Hrafnhildur Arnardottir (HA): In my
art, because the hair has been braided, it
becomes like a drawing. Each installation is
different. I don’t decide before what they
look like. The way we style our hair pro-
jects an image to the world. We’re obsessed
with hair. A person with very beautiful hair
is almost guaranteed to do better in life.
The hair is a dead cell, or waste product.
We put so much value on these “leftovers”
of our body. It’s about vanity. We like to
control it, tame it, and make it beautiful. In
movie love scenes, they take down the hair.
It’s all about the animal or the emotion,
being free from control.
Marianne Jonasson (MJ): The
Victorians had a tradition of braiding hair
from their loved ones to create a memorial
to those who had passed on. Did this influ-
ence your work?
HA: That fascinated me - the perver-
sion of it. It’s hair, but not on somebody’s
head. In Iceland, there is an old tradition of
creating little flowers out of human hair, to
decorate a dead person’s picture. I came
upon a flower like that in an antique shop
in Iceland. They were so small and delicate.
I wanted to see them on a larger scale. It