Due North

 

The Form Review is a simple attempt to increase dialogue within art journalism and highlight the subjectivity of a traditional exhibition review.  Artists/curators/responsible parties of an exhibition are invited to respond to five short prompts.  In turn, a representative of the St.Claire views the exhibition and independently responds to the same five prompts.  Both sets of “form answers” are published in tandem on the St.Claire website. To participate drop us a line at hark@the-st-claire.com

due_north (IMAGE: Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (Shoplifter) Sun, 2013. Image courtesy of Matt Kalasky)

 

form_review_eye1 Responses by Kelsey Halliday Johnson and Marianne Bernstein

 1. What is hidden in this exhibition?  What is in plain sight?

Picking up hitchhikers, then sleeping on their couch in Reykajvik, Bjork liquor, driving through snowstorms in a stick shift ten-person van, being surrounded by wild horses on the coast of the Arctic Sea, sharing “the Dollhouse,” wearing pelts at the airport, tricky fisherman, Shawn disappearing for hours at Jökulsárlón with the car keys, studio visits in former fisheries along the waterfront of Reykjavik, the Robert Smithson exhibition at the Reykjavik Art Museum, lunch at the Laundromat, extended residencies, American artist talks at Islensk Grafik, hanging out at Colony/PS1 MOMA, falling back into darkness, falling forward into light, working every day for three years.

The art of 13 Icelandic and 13 American artists, collaborations, dialogues, friendships, relationships to the landscape. A breaking down of boundaries between art, music, fashion, science, and design that is very much inspired by the fluid creative practice of our peers in Iceland. Our future shorelines and our fragile planet we take for granted.

 

2. Who would be this exhibition’s parents?  What might it’s children look like?

The city of Philadelphia and the country of Iceland, two kindred spirits coming into their own.

 

3. Describe one moment in this exhibition.

The moment we realized what huge leaps of faith were taken on both sides of the ocean.

 

4. This exhibition answers the following question:

How do you navigate in the dark?

 

5. You should message this exhibition if…

You’re lost and lonely and in the mood for rotten shark.

 

form_review_eye2Responses by Matt Kalasky, Editor The St.Claire

1. What is hidden in this exhibition?  What is in plain sight?

Things are hidden beneath feet and feet of snow. Snow that has never melted ever ever. So dense is the snow–so long has it been a presence–that no one remembers what lies beneath.  No one remembers if there even is an underneath. Not obstruction but erasure. In plain sight was a reckoning of everything being wiped clean.

 

2. Who would be this exhibition’s parents?  What might it’s children look like?

It’s parent’s pass down tales of warning. There is an ancient wisdom: exposure means death. Keep everything bundled up. Keep everything inside. This is how cold oblivion is kept outside. This is how everyone is kept outside. It’s children are comfortable in the coldness of cyberspace. The (#000000) of the internet, the silent stillness of a solid state hard drive, the cleanliness of modern design that leaves no room for squishy squirms or stray pixels.

 

3. Describe one moment in this exhibition.

In the dark and expanse of the Ice Box floats Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir’s (a.k.a. Shoplifter) Sun. Like a decapitated Truffula tree or a woolly ghost its presence is both lush and spectral. With so much surrounding space our bodies become celestial bodies; pulled into its orbital trance.

 

4. This exhibition answers the following question:

Wait, is Bjork from Iceland? What else do I know?

 

5.  You should message this exhibition if…

You know of a fire where we both can become warm.

 

“Due North: í norður”
duenorth2014.com

 



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