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| Ólöf Björnsdóttir |
| Woollenmaiden |
| 09. 10. 2004 - 24. 10. 2004 |
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LOPAMEYJA
OPNUN LAUGARDAGINN 9.OKTÓBER KLUKKAN 18.00
Kling & Bang gallerí
Jarðhæð
9. – 24.Október 2004
Rooted in Icelandic folklore Woollenmaiden makes brief but vivid appearances both in public and on film. She wears a unitard of traditional Icelandic knitted wool and high heels, bad teeth and wild, black hair. An alarming, grotesque vision, she made her very first appearance in a Reykjavik club pole dancing inside a homemade pole in order to draw attention to the ludicrousness of that latest American import. Since then she has been spotted greeting gallery visitors, waving to motorists from atop a stone pediment in the Lake District and tapping out rhythms across a hoarding in front of the Tate Modern. She is a force rather than a being, an irrational nonsense whose fleeting appearance jars the moment like an electrical spark and burns itself onto the viewer´s retina. A facilitator more than a maker, Woollenmaiden provokes creativity and stimulates love of art. She is generous and purposeful. In one video countless red berries drop from her mouth as she dispenses seeds of beauty. In another work Ólöf Björnsdóttir has knitted scarves with pockets for gathering these seeds. Throughout her work, these small but vital gifts are given and received.
Woollenmaiden´s actions defy the internal logic of theatre of performance art; they are not contained within a narrative or bound by a stage. For that matter she cannot be easily contained by the artworld. Her presence relies on an art context and often engages with artworks and art institutions, such as her percussive interference with the Julian Opie hoarding in front of the Tate. But her force ruptures the inward-looking cosiness of the artworld. Her commitment, her elusiveness, and her economical approach ensure that she cannot be written off as simply a wacky artist with a strategy. Woollenmaiden/Björnsdóttir eschews celebrity and notoriety but rather jolts her viewers out of any passive reception of an artwork. Like the fairies she appears unpredictably, emerging from the gaps in logic and rationality. Fleeting moments that strike as though more dependent on mood or atmosphere than plan, the actions are fragmentary and open-ended, without metaphor or strategy. Slighter even than interventions, they do not bear the weight of expected tangible results but nonetheless set off subtle shock waves of disruption or alteration along the way.
Karolyn Hatton
Copyright 2003
Hluti texta úr sýningarskrá Woollenmaiden í SHOWROOM, London, England
Part from a text from a Woollenmaiden catalogue, SHOWROOM, London, England.
http://www.this.is/eyeball/olof
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LOPAMEYJA
OPNUN LAUGARDAGINN 9.OKTÓBER KLUKKAN 18.00
Kling & Bang gallerí
Jarðhæð
9. – 24.Október 2004
Rooted in Icelandic folklore Woollenmaiden makes brief but vivid appearances both in public and on film. She wears a unitard of traditional Icelandic knitted wool and high heels, bad teeth and wild, black hair. An alarming, grotesque vision, she made her very first appearance in a Reykjavik club pole dancing inside a homemade pole in order to draw attention to the ludicrousness of that latest American import. Since then she has been spotted greeting gallery visitors, waving to motorists from atop a stone pediment in the Lake District and tapping out rhythms across a hoarding in front of the Tate Modern. She is a force rather than a being, an irrational nonsense whose fleeting appearance jars the moment like an electrical spark and burns itself onto the viewer´s retina. A facilitator more than a maker, Woollenmaiden provokes creativity and stimulates love of art. She is generous and purposeful. In one video countless red berries drop from her mouth as she dispenses seeds of beauty. In another work Ólöf Björnsdóttir has knitted scarves with pockets for gathering these seeds. Throughout her work, these small but vital gifts are given and received.
Woollenmaiden´s actions defy the internal logic of theatre of performance art; they are not contained within a narrative or bound by a stage. For that matter she cannot be easily contained by the artworld. Her presence relies on an art context and often engages with artworks and art institutions, such as her percussive interference with the Julian Opie hoarding in front of the Tate. But her force ruptures the inward-looking cosiness of the artworld. Her commitment, her elusiveness, and her economical approach ensure that she cannot be written off as simply a wacky artist with a strategy. Woollenmaiden/Björnsdóttir eschews celebrity and notoriety but rather jolts her viewers out of any passive reception of an artwork. Like the fairies she appears unpredictably, emerging from the gaps in logic and rationality. Fleeting moments that strike as though more dependent on mood or atmosphere than plan, the actions are fragmentary and open-ended, without metaphor or strategy. Slighter even than interventions, they do not bear the weight of expected tangible results but nonetheless set off subtle shock waves of disruption or alteration along the way.
Karolyn Hatton
Copyright 2003
Hluti texta úr sýningarskrá Woollenmaiden í SHOWROOM, London, England
Part from a text from a Woollenmaiden catalogue, SHOWROOM, London, England.
http://www.this.is/eyeball/olof
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Grandagarğur 20 - 101 Reykjavík
kob@this.is |
