The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2006, Page 26

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 60 #1
Margret
Blondal
by Kerri Taverner
I had the pleasure of meeting Margret
Blondal, a Contemporary artist participat-
ing in the VOLCANA Icelandic Panorama
exhibit currently featured at the Plug-In
Institute of Contemporary Art in the
Winnipeg Exchange District. Margret, the
4 other VOLCANA artists and curator
Kevin Kelly, toured Gimli the day after
their exhibition's grand opening in
Winnipeg.
The artistic group drove out to our
small lakeside town of Gimli, which is the
largest settlement of Icelanders outside of
Iceland. On this journey they visited Betel
and met our community elders of Icelandic
descent, giving them the opportunity to
converse about the area, the people and
their stories in the Icelandic language.
After visiting the New Iceland
Heritage Museum, their last stop on their
journey was Willow Island. The artists vis-
ited White Rock; a tribute that my grandfa-
ther and his brothers established to honour
the first Icelandic settlers.
It was a rare and exciting opportunity
for me, as a visual artist of Icelandic
descent, to sit down for coffee and pon-
nokokurs and discuss art with these cre-
ative women. Introductions were made,
which were followed by a discussion of
where the artists were from in Iceland.
Naturally, this was followed by a conversa-
tion about who was related to whom in
Iceland and in Gimli. As it turns out,
Margret is related to our very own, Senator
Jams Johnson.
As we became more comfortable with
each other, our conversation turned to the
art show at the Plug In gallery. I asked the
group how they felt their diverse mediums
came together as a whole in this exhibition.
There was a consensus that a fusion and