The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2001, Qupperneq 9

Vol. 56 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
47
Katrina Koven
by Freyja Arnason
On November 7th, 2000, Katrina
Anderson Koven opened her art show at the
Chiendog Gallery in Winnipeg.
Koven, a Winnipeg born artist, left our fine
prairie city at the age of eighteen to further
her musical education in Toronto, where she
has done everything from playing bass in a
band to writing jingles for commercials.
Although Koven's formal training is in
music, art has always been an integral part of
her life.
The inspiration for this show is deeply tied
to her Icelandic Canadian heritage. Koven is
an active member in the Icelandic Canadian
Club of Toronto where she served as the edi-
tor of the newsletter for many years. She has
hosted Icelandic language classes in her home
and although she does not speak fluent
Icelandic (she is fluent in French and
German) she finds the language to be an inex-
haustible source of ideas.
"Sometimes I just open the dictionary for
inspiration," she says with a laugh. "I'm very
proud of this culture that is so steeped in the
literary tradition. That is why I always try to
include a little book in my shows."
This show, entitled GAK—the God of
Silence was a great success. Koven offers
insight to the solitary figure depicted in the
pieces of this show in her statement:
"Last winter my brother went to an art auc-
tion and bought a floppy faceless doll stuffed
with factory sock remnants and one marble
egg. The title given by its creator Dana
Klemke, was Melancholy Dolly. I renamed it
GAK. GAK is the perfect 3-D version of the
figures I have been drawing since I was a
child. Expressionistic, abstract, loose. GAK
became my model and during the past year
I've drawn hundreds of GAK studies on paper,
canvas, walls, clothing, skin and Barbie® doll
legs. I invented a life story for GAK. He
became GAK—God Pagtrinur, Icelandic for
God of Silence. I imagine that the doll was an
artifact from the Viking Days. That he
belonged to some Nordic child who lived near
what is now Rekjavik. That perhaps the local
women used to sew the dolls in the image of
the god of silence believing that if their chil-
dren took the doll to bed they would have a
sound sleep.
These paintings represent a return to a sim-
pler, freer form of expression for me. The
lines are frank, relaxed, the GAK figure look-
ing boneless, almost resigned. There is a
child-like feeling to the work that in many
ways reflects a return to the roots of my pas-
sion for art that started here, when I was a
child in Winnipeg."
The use of the God of Silence in Koven's