The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2006, Qupperneq 22

20
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 60 #1
by Brynna Stefanson
Hildur
Bjarnadottir
Iceland is a country well known for its
textiles. The tradition jjfgf textiles is so
strong that in Icelandic elementary schools,
everyone takes sewing and knitting. Artist
Hildur Bjarnadottir is carrying on this tra-
dition, but don’t expect her to be knitting
sweaters.
Bjarnadottir’s works are art pieces,
made for galleries and exhibitions, using
textiles as her medium. Some of her work
deals with the ideas of painting, and what
makes a painting a painting, and a textile a
textile, such as an embroidered piece stat-
ing that “Painting is the only true art
form”, or painter’s canvases crocheted
from Belgian linen. She has also woven a
canvas coloured with acrylic paint “so it
has all the elements of a painting; the can-
vas, paint and stretcher bars, but it is made
entirely with the methods of textiles.”
Her art is an examination of what con-
stitutes high-art and low-art, and her
grandmothers have inspired her. “My
grandmothers all did beautiful textiles,
mostly useful objects, table cloths, mittens,
hats, and cross-stitched pictures. These
objects were usually used up or tucked
away in drawers, and when it came to dec-
orating their own houses, they would use
kitchy little statues that were quite the
opposite of the unique crafts they were
making by hand; the statues were mass
produced “low-art”.”
Bjarnadottir has now immortalized her
grandmothers in the art they held so high,
ceramic figurines. She is also reworking the
crafts that they did. Delicate doilies now
feature protruding guns and skulls, and a
beautiful crochet work is displayed promi-
nently on a pedestal.
She feels that though there is some-
times grey area between fine arts and crafts,