NEXT 2011-2/2
TREMOR (I)
Perceptions of nature, it´s geological time, slow constant change and rhythms, linked to events and reactions closer to our human experience, time and scale. Like sediments of history, big and small, old and new. Juxtaposition of the man made with the natural, shifts, changes, movements and disasters.
When you walk into the space the first thing you see is a kind of temporary wall, or in the making, wooden frame with plastic stretched over it, semi transparent, so you see the flickering light form a TV and projector. You turn left, pass another wall which is made with the same wooden frame, but this one has been closed of with plates, up against the wall are all kinds of tools and installment equipments.
On the corner with the red light lamp you turn right and enter into a U shaped hall of mirrors. The end wall shows video on a semi transparent mirror ( the mirroring paint has been sanded down to let the light pass through). The video shows people in an earthquake simulator, they appear one at a time, ghostly images, visible on the surface, but also passing through, and onto the the wall behind the viewer, the image is also reflected in to the space behind. The image in the video, the viewer and the rest of the environment are reflected in the other walls that make up the U shape of the mirror hall, making an endless tunnel swaying a bit, so it gives the impression of circle forming from the multiple images.
Keep on pass the mirror hall, turn right, then you enter the back space, with TV, sofa, table, painting, print, food and drinks. You can also view the projected image of the trembling people from that side, their faces are reflected in a blown up size on the wall besides the TV.
I see this pair of pictures as a key to the other element of the installation, the image on the right is a diagram from the report that the Icelandic government has made to investigate the reasons for the financial crash in 2008. The diagrams shows investments of bank
CEO´s in their own banks in the months leading up to the crash. The image on the left is mountain Herdubreid (Broad-shoulders), queen of Icelandic mountains, and the most painted. This is also the image that got me starting going down this road of investigation, so it had to be part of the installation.
The video in the TV shows Valhöll (Valhalla) burning in 2009. Valhalla is viking heaven in Norse mythology. The house burning is situated in the rift valley that separates the American and Eurasian Plates, it is kind of nowhere land but at the same time the place were the oldest existing parliament in the world was founded.
The painting you see there on the wall behind the TV, is of the same place Þingvellir, painted by my grandfather´s brother. I saved it from being thrown to the rubbish dumps, I took it home, but did not hang it up for months, the day after it went up on a wall, the real Valhalla burned down. I decided to make it part of the installation both because it has this dual element, the painted image versus the “real” on the TV, and as part of the atmosphere I wanted to create in the back space, a feeling of a home, going together with the sofa, table, TV, food and drinks.
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