Bless Bless

I'm home now after a memorable and wonder filled six weeks of work and travel in Iceland, accumulating experiences, meeting people and photographing the dramatic land, water and sky scapes.   As I settle back, my mind is still moving with ideas and imagery from the trip. Good-bye residency and good-bye Iceland.  "Bless, bless", as they say in Iceland.  Many thanks to Alda and Kriestvieg from the Gullkistan Residency and Linda and Ægir, friends and tour guides.  You made my trip filled with memories and many inspirations for future work.  I look forward to what will come from this experience and I already can't wait to come back, see you again and continue where I left off!

I will continue to add Icelandic imagery to this blog as I begin to process what I collected.  For this entry, I have posted miscellaneous images that showcase my work and experiences at the residency.

One of my projects during the residency was tracking my walks with a gps device.  I accumulated many tracks which I then printed out to get a sense of what I had.  Lots of words came to mind: scaling, scales, "fisk", a scale of scales, step by step, planes, topography, three-dimensional, planar, linear, line shapes, broken lines, contour, installation, context, meander, wander, lost, found, mapping.

I also made a screen out of wire from a rusty fence that I found and cut up on the farm.  Liz and I used it to project our video, Tangled Dreams, for the residents.  I then took many detail shots of it for my photo library.  Interesting to me later when I found some stones with cracks that echoed some of the wire shapes.

I also experimented with the ash from the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano on a variety of papers, including brown craft paper and yupo.  Examples follow:

And finally Icelandic kennings haunt me.  I've collected many during my stay and suspect that some  will find their ways in future work and titles.

Scree wise?

  Without seeing Iceland's glaciers, one knows by the abundance of scree slopes (skriða) throughout Iceland, that they exist. Glaciers break down the land and broken rock fragments accumulate  at the base of hamars (crags) and mountain cliffs.  Deceptively smooth from a distance!

On my last day of the residency, Alda (one of the residency directors) and her husband, Jon took us on a walk down to the "milky" waters outside of Laugarvatn (an endearing term they give to rivers that looked white from a distance).  Once at the river, rather than return the way we came, Jon wanted to follow the river out and asked if anyone might be interested.  Most opted not too. His children and Auke followed Jon and  I elected to as I wanted to gps a longer walk .  Little did I know that I would call this one my "challenge" walk.

As the terrain became rockier and rockier,  it became clearer that we would not be able to walk down along the river. Jon pointed up along the hillside, "this way up".  Hmm?  Straight up a hillside of scree with minimal plants for anchors. Trusting an Icelander (???),  I followed along until I was no longer able to establish firm footing in the abundant scree, slipping and sliding with no plants to hold onto. Scree wise?

Somehow, with Aucke's help (and body), I found a way up to meet the others at the top.  Thank you Auke!

"landlacksdarkness"

Where is the darkness? Instead

22 hours of light endless days

with a  twilight barely noticed between sunset and sunrise

time altering,

perhaps like a dream

what time

is it?

I'm exhausted!

"andvari" from the earth

  What's my attraction to Iceland? This desire to go north, to a land of open space, solitude and silence with a  vastness of blue hues,  horizons,  and nothingness.  Its presence is elemental and primordial and one that is sensed and felt. " Eg reit ekki."  I don't know. I don't know why I am moved!

Its feeling takes me back to a place of "beginning" and I am reminded once again of Theodore Roethke's, "Cuttings" ("This urge, wrestle, resurrection of dry sticks....."), a poem that moved me way back when!

Art in Iceland

  While in Reykjavik, I toured some of its art galleries and museums.   Some highlights:

Hanging in the entry at Hafnarhus was The Icelandic Love Corporation's "Sokkabuxnavehur"/Tights-web.

An inventive use of panty hose!

There was also a wonderful installation "Knitting House" by Elin Ruin and the New Beauty Council.

"Knitting House" recreated the most common type of apartment in Husby, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. The apartments were a standardized prefab housing project built  in 1974. Women knitted an exact replica of the apartments at 75% scale.  Visitors can walk inside, stepping over a steel support structure to enter all of the rooms.  Wonderful details and textures that include stains, wallpaper patterns, tiles, knobs, fixtures, all in muted hues.

On Viðey Island,  I visited Richard Serra's "Milestones". I felt like I was on a pilgrimage as I walked from station to station, once again tracking the walk using my GPS.

"Milestones" also called "Áfangar",  spans the entire western part of  Viðey, an island in Reykjavik's bay. The piece comprises nine pairs of basalt columns, a reference to the geology of the island.

The columns are placed at the same elevation on the periphery of the island: one column of each pair stands nine metres above sea level, the other at ten metres. One pillar of each pair is four metres in height and the other three metres, so that the tops of the pillars are at 13 metres above sea level. The distance between each pair of pillars depends upon the gradient of the ground.  All the pillars are visible from the highest point on west Viðey, at 18 metres above sea level.

Also on the island is Yoko Ono's "The Imagine Peace Tower" conceived as a beacon to world peace. The work is in the form of a wishing well on which the words "Imagine Peace" are inscribed in 24 world languages.  Out of the well emerges a strong, tall tower of light.

On Oct 9, 2007 the work was dedicated to the memory of John Lennon, on his 67th birthday. Every year the Imagine Peace Tower is lit from October 9 (Lennon's birthday) to December 8 (the day of his death). In addition the tower is lit from the winter solstice to New Year's Day and during the first week of spring. The electricity for the light comes entirely from Reykjavik Energy and is generated from geothermal power.

On the Snaefellsnes peninsula, I visited Roni Horn's installation, "Library of Water" http://www.libraryofwater.is/landing.html in the coastal town of Stykkisholmur. It is located in a former library building that stands on a promontory overlooking the town and ocean.

The "Library of Water" is a constellation of 24 glass columns that contain water collected from ice of some major glaciers around Iceland. The glass columns reflect and refract light onto a rubber floor embedded with Icelandic and English words that relate to weather.

And finally back in Reykjavik, the i8 gallery (my favorite gallery in Reykjavik)  featured the work of artist, Egill Sæbjörnsson who experiments with elements of sculpture, animation and sound that interact in a playful and inventive way.

A Land of the Verb

Just finished reading Christina Sunley's novel, The Tricking of Freya.  I love her description of Iceland's geology and its effect on California, my home.  "Think of the earth like an egg with its shell cracked. We're standing on one of those cracks. Right here is where the North American Plate meets the Eurasian Plate. Right through the middle of Iceland. And underneath, lava rises up and pushes the two plates apart. That's what causes earthquakes in California. California is on the opposite side of the North American Plate. Iceland is pushing California into the ocean."

I visited one of the rift sites at the end of the Reykjanes Peninsula. Leif the Lucky Bridge marks the boundary between the North American plate to the west, and the Eurasian plate to the east, which are moving apart at a rate of about 2 cm per year.

Leif the Lucky Bridge spans the Alfagja rift valley

Alfagja Rift Valley

Another rift valley can be seen at Þingvellir, one of Iceland's most important historical sites, where the Vikings established the world's first democratic partliament, the AlÞing in 930 A.D.

Pingvellir

Below are  stones shaped from the forces of the plates.   I took many photos  to inspire new shapes for my constructions when I return.

Rock shapes

rock shapes

rock shapes

rock shapes

Iceland is blowing away

I continue to be fascinated by the Icelandic language  and was curious about how  Icelanders describe their winds.  Here is a partial list: vindur- wind

stormur - heavy wind

rok - hard wind

moldrok - strong wind with earth

sandrok - strong wind with sand

fárviðri - crazy wind, tempest, typhoon

gola, gjóla, hvassviðri - breeze

logn - no wind

andvari - breath

kaldi - a cold chilly breeze

stinningskaldi - ice cold wind

fellibylur - hurricane

hnúkaÞeyr - warm mountain wind flowing from south to north

norðangarri - cold north to south wind

sunnanblær - southern breeze

gustur - gust of wind

austankaldir - east cold wind

hvasst - medium strong wind

strekkingur - medium wind

blástur - blast  "It is blowing/windy."

hvirfilvindur - tornado

sviptivindur - sudden strong winds, common around steep mountains

staðvindur - trade winds common to a region

skafrenningur - wind that blows loose snow; piles of snow result

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Winds can be destructive here. One of Iceland's most enduring environmental issues is soil erosion caused by high winds and the overgrazing of sheep. In parts of the country, particularly in the highlands region, results are dramatic, with formerly vegetated land reduced to barren wastes.

Nootka lupin ( a purple-flowered plant from the west coast of North America) was introduced to Iceland to help anchor and add nitrogen to the soil.  The project has had mixed results; on one hand it has revegetating vast tracts of land but not without a cost.  Unfortunately it is now  affecting Iceland's biodiversity.  Grazing sheep do not like its bitter taste, so it has spread its relatively tall foliage, blocking light for indigenous mosses, lichens and shrubs.

On most days here I have experienced  "blessuð bliðan":

However, recently  the "moldrok" and "sandrok" from the highlands blew in, results of Iceland's soil erosion:

Walking my gps through Reykjavik

Við gengum mikiö!

Touring Southern Iceland with Linda & Aegir

Liz and I took a weekend break from the studio with  Ægir and Linda, friends of Liz's from Iceland who wanted to show us their country. They drove us along Iceland's southern route (hwy 1) and we took in the ever-changing landscape, stopping every 30 meters or thereabouts for a "photo op".  The word for the weekend was "stop" as we used it often whenever another "photo op" appeared.  It seemed to work as we never uttered or learned the Icelandic word for stop. Later I looked it up and found seven words for stop: dvöl, stansa, stöðva, hætta, stoppa, staðncemast, snarstoppa.  I wonder what kind of stops Icelanders make????

Iceland is packed with spectacular natural phenomena, evidenced by what we saw on our  300 kilometer (one way) trek.  Amazing scenery and sites:

STOP: Waterfalls to walk behind and view from the top.

STOP: Old traditional homes with sod covered roofs and some built into the hillside.

STOP: Dverghamrar, "Dwarf Cliffs", dwellings of the "little people".

STOP: Miles of moss covered lava that takes 100 years to grow; 10" thick,  soft and spongy to walk on.

STOP: Mýrdahur with black beaches and basalt columns and twisted/tortured shapes.

STOP: The Glacial Lagoon at Jökolsarlón at base of Vatnajökul, the largest glacier in Europe covering 12,000 square kilometers with its ice formations, always changing.  The lagoon is 250 meters deep with only the tips of the icebergs visible.

STOP: Rocks jetting out of grass covered mountains:

ANOTHER KIND OF STOP:

STOP: A solitary church overlooking small bay town of Vik.

And finally a stop of a stop:

Tracking Mt. Laugarvatn

I tracked another walk with my gps device, this time the trail up to the summit of Mt. Laugarvatn.  Beautiful views of Laugarvatn and beyond and another track!