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About the idea:
The original idea for the painting arose when I was driving in Ísafjörður fjord in June 2023, on my way to coast cleaning at Hornstrandir, and I was totally amazed by this red stripe in the rock that could be seen in many places where it had been blasted for road construction. I began to study these red stripes and found out that the red stripe is caused by the fact that Iceland had a tropical climate about 6-7 million years ago where palm and banana trees and other tropical vegetation covered the land, but during major disasters this material oxidized and petrified or combined with volcanic gases and got this red color.
Receding glacier makes the red stripe visible:
My proximity to the glacier, magnificent rocks and ice during my job as a park ranger in Vatnajökull National Park in the summer of 2023 had a great and strong impackt on me. I was processing the fact that the glacier has covered everything, retreated and grown alternately, but is retreating again. The remarkable thing is that the red stripe is now clearly visible in the Southeast, e.g. near Þröng by Breiðamerkurjökull, where the glacier has retreated enormously and the red stripe is now clearly visible in the rock at the base of Fellsfjall.
About the idea:
The work is based on juxtaposing cultural relics from various periods, e.g. strict forms that belong to the present or the future on the one hand and quotes from centuries-old masterpieces from Icelandic art history on the other. The stratas are mixed up and the earthy qualities of soil, precious stones, metals and ashes collide in an eternal flux of solid and liquid substances.
The whirl and the carved relic:
On an altarpiece from a Búðir church in Snæfellsnes, which is very badly damaged and stored in the National Museum, you can see a whirl or winding that fascinated me so much that I used the form in the work. The whirl and its meaning is interesting. It is probably supposed to represent the journey of the wise men as it bears three golden crowns of the Magi´s. The carved relic on the other hand, is by Ámundi Jónsson and had to be a part of the scene.
The painting Melencolia II – part 1, is based on obtrusive personal experience, scientific quotations and art historical sources. Melencolia II – part 1 echoes the etching Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer (24 x 18,8 cm) from the year 1514.
In the piece ’The Fourth Dimension’ I project the lifespan of all 11 women in the series ‘Bloodline’, letting them emerge and dissolve, positioned on a timespiral of 360°, where one round equals one century.
Time is the creative force and our lives are all intertwined and have a beginning and an end. We are positioned in the year 2017 and the future is unknown to us. My own lifetime is the closest one, the flesh tone one with the golden threads dividing the 7 year periods.
Me with my daugher and ancestors.
Me with my children and my ancestors with theirs.
Taking a close look at my relationships.
Kristín Halldórsdóttir 1754 -1820. One of my ancestors. Mother of twelve children.
The average number of years between generations, i.e. between mother and daughter, is 33.33 years. Looking into time, which is presented here as a spiral or interconnected circles where one circle takes over 100 years, three rays are formed where life ignites every 33.33 years.
The Clock of Centuries is a visual presentation of time and an attempt to demonstrate regeneration through direct female descent. The form is a clock; each circle is one century and the individuals of the female line placed in their birth years as far as records reach, or to the year 1685. The closest to us in time is my daughter, born in 1988, followed by myself in 1958 and my mother in 1938 and thus it proceeds further back. On average these equals three generations in a century.
Photo is black and white but in reality the painting is in brown tones (will be replaced later).
Photo is black and white but in reality the painting is in color, with black as a ruling color (will be replaced later).
Myndskreyting við sögu Þórarins Eldjárns Möwekvæði.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við söguna Dauðastríðið eftir Halldór Stefánsson.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við sögu Stefáns Unnsteinssonar Ónefndur félagi.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við ljóð Steins Steinars Passíusálmur nr. 51.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við kaflann um fangelsisvist Jóns Hreggviðssonar á Bessastöðum í Íslandsklukku Halldórs Laxness.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við sögu Gests Pálssonar Hans Vöggur.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við söguna Til komi þitt ríki eftir Jakobínu Sigurðardóttur.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við ljóðið Refur eftir Örn Arnarson.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við ljóðið Barnamorðinginn María Farrar eftir Bertolt Brecht í þýðingu Halldórs Laxness.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við söguna „Móðir mín í kví, kví“ úr þjóðsögum Jóns Árnasonar.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
Myndskreyting við sögu Eiríks Brynjólfssonar Gömul kona.
Bók: Skuggar – lesarkasafn grunnskóla.
Útgefandi: Námsgagnastofnun 1989.
Myndskreytingar: ©Guðrún Tryggvadóttir.
Hjálmar Árnason og Magnús Jón Árnason söfnuðu efninu.
My family, captured in parental bondage. I am not really with them, except I creep in through the body of my youngest brother whose right foot reaches out of the picture.
The painting is the result of my studies on Egyptology.
A dream I had to paint.
This series did originally consist of 19 black & white DIN A4 photos of my back, that I enlarged to real life size photos on thin photo-paper (Copy Line). Then I made stamps and stamped on each photo the name of the receiver and sender, address, POSTE RESTANTE, postal code, city and country. I made photocopies of all the photos before I folded them down to size DIN A5 to look more like letters, took them to the post office where I put stamps on them and sent them on their way.
The final series consists on one side of the letters I got back (11 letters) and photocopies of the letters I did not get back (7 letters) in spite of the international rule that POSTE RESTANTE letters shall be returned to sender if not picked up by receiver within a given time. The photo above shows one example, the letter to me from me that I sent to Beijing and was returned to me.
On July 25, 1980 I sent 19 letters to 19 cities in 18 countries.
The letters are photos of my back. Photos of me, to me, from me.
To be able to send the photos to my own name in 19 cities all over the world I used POSTE RESTANTE*.
Example:
Guðrún Tryggvadóttir
Napels
POSTE RESTANTE
Italy
*POSTE RESTANTE: A department at main post offices where people can send mail to people without permanent residence and to tourists traveling in that city.
The cities were chosen randomly. I sent photos disguised as letters to cities all over the world:
I sent my self photos with the purpose of getting them back, at least sometime. It varies from country to country how long they keep POSTE RESTANTE letters before they send them back, the shortest time was one month.
Conclusively there has been an exhibition of my back in post offices in 19 cities. Also on their way to there and back.
The letters have gone through the hands of many post service and transportation employees, that might have wondered why the senders name is the same as that of the receiver.
The fact that the photos are of the sender and receiver could not have been obvious.
Each country must have rules on how long POSTE RESTANTE are kept before sent back. According to the time of return (12 returned) it is obvious that the distances comply with the timespan. Meaning that long distance = long time from sending to receiving and short distance = short time from sending to receiving.
Returned letters are stamped, signed and written on by all the people that had something to do in the process of delivery. They write and stamp on my back and note that I’m not there.
Drawings on the letters are by people I don’t know.
Letters sent July 25, 1980.
To:
Amsterdam
Barcelona
Berlin B.R.D.
Berlin D.D.R.
Kairo
Kalkutta
London
Mexico City
Moskow
München
Neapel
New York
Oslo
Beijing
Reykjavík
Rome
Teheran
Tokyo
Retrieved mail.
From:
Amsterdam
Berlin B.R.D.
London
München
Napels
New York
Oslo
Beijing
Tokyo
Letters probably still (May 1981) in the following cities:
Barcelona
Berlin D.D.R.
Kairo
Kalkutta
Mexico City
Moskow
Teheran
The only letter I picked um myself was the one at the main pos office POSTE RESTANTE in Reykjavík.
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