past Exhibition
Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir
Schemes
March 11 – April 22, 2023
Solemnity in Hekla Dögg’s Studio
Can a colour make a mistake? Does a wave dance incorrectly? When does the ocean dance incorrectly? Never? How do I look under the microscope of an alien? Like a pattern? Why does a mindset get in the way of itself? Does a mindset get in the way of itself? Is messing up an ordinary, regular dance number? A slightly different line? What is progress? Is progress a wave that jumps over the other waves, pushing them aside? Does it hurt the other waves? Does disappearing make them feel good, bad or nothing at all? Why do colours dance into one another in a systematic rather than chaotic manner? How can you shake up the system? By roughing it up? Teasing it, poking it, pushing it? Touching the system with a verb that no language has discovered? Yet in the end, the system always finds paths for its locks – while Hekla Dögg combs colours in a pool, brushing colours in an oblong pool with a giant comb as hairdresser to the queens, as colours are queens who don’t lord over the life of a maiden but soothe (unsentimentally) – enchant (with varying degrees of danger) – tempt (with varying degrees of risk) – seduce (away/here) – ease (a weary mind) – nurse (Lazaruses) – praise [the beauty] – shape [the beauty] – pay homage to [the beauty] – tease it – burn colours burn – calm (the restless) – placate (the stressed) – heal: THE EYES – then the temper – if needed – it is always needed– always is a pattern – always is a colour, [colour ¹ psychiatrist] – is the colour never white? Black is the shyest of colours and yellow un-.
In Hekla Dögg’s studio, I asked the colours: “Colours, do you get married and conceive children who become colours that turn you around, get married and conceive children that then turn their parents around and become you, the grandparents? Do you live according to such a system or pattern?”
The reply of the colours in Hekla Dögg’s studio: “We flow on like a stream without an address, get married and separated and just like all rivers flow into the sea, we flow towards the light that you could say is the name of our addressless and concise mother.”
Cmyk → rgb → cmyk - c + m + y = svart – r + g+ b = hvítt → + Hekla Dögg → 6 colours → + Hekla Dögg → 7 colours → + Hekla Dögg → 13 colours. Hekla Dögg dresses a showroom in locks of colours that dance their way down a channel beyond any address.
Kó 2 ii 023
Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir (b. 1969) makes interactive constellations, large-scale paper installations, often resulting in a group or cluster of related things. Often intertwined with creating a dialogue of sound, her work might manifest itself as a frozen puddle in the middle of the summer, pop-up igloos, fireworks, or wishing wells. Her works carry significant moments of wonder, magic, and the unexpected. Time is a fundamental feature that she communicates in diverse and often surprising ways, not only through traditional time-related media, e.g. videos, sound, and performances but also through content and exhibition format. Time appears as a rhythm or a movement, a kind of progression in the form of itself rather than a narrative medium.
Constantly inspired by the creativity of her peers, Hekla has worked to create platforms for other artists, both in her own projects, where artists compose or create work that becomes a part of her installations, as well as through curating. She held the position of a professor of fine arts at the Iceland University of the Arts for a decade, alongside maintaining her art practice from a studio in Reykjavík. Hekla is one of the founders of Kling & Bang gallery in Reykjavík.
Her works have been widely exhibited, at institutions such as The National Gallery of Iceland, The Reykjavik Art Museum, The Centre of Contemporary Art of Gibraltar, Malmö Konsthall in Sweden, TRUCK Contemporary Art in Calgary in Canada, Tate Modern in London, OMR Mexico City, Frac Normandie and Frac Réunion in France, as well as the Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art in Genoa, Italy.
Can a colour make a mistake? Does a wave dance incorrectly? When does the ocean dance incorrectly? Never? How do I look under the microscope of an alien? Like a pattern? Why does a mindset get in the way of itself? Does a mindset get in the way of itself? Is messing up an ordinary, regular dance number? A slightly different line? What is progress? Is progress a wave that jumps over the other waves, pushing them aside? Does it hurt the other waves? Does disappearing make them feel good, bad or nothing at all? Why do colours dance into one another in a systematic rather than chaotic manner? How can you shake up the system? By roughing it up? Teasing it, poking it, pushing it? Touching the system with a verb that no language has discovered? Yet in the end, the system always finds paths for its locks – while Hekla Dögg combs colours in a pool, brushing colours in an oblong pool with a giant comb as hairdresser to the queens, as colours are queens who don’t lord over the life of a maiden but soothe (unsentimentally) – enchant (with varying degrees of danger) – tempt (with varying degrees of risk) – seduce (away/here) – ease (a weary mind) – nurse (Lazaruses) – praise [the beauty] – shape [the beauty] – pay homage to [the beauty] – tease it – burn colours burn – calm (the restless) – placate (the stressed) – heal: THE EYES – then the temper – if needed – it is always needed– always is a pattern – always is a colour, [colour ¹ psychiatrist] – is the colour never white? Black is the shyest of colours and yellow un-.
In Hekla Dögg’s studio, I asked the colours: “Colours, do you get married and conceive children who become colours that turn you around, get married and conceive children that then turn their parents around and become you, the grandparents? Do you live according to such a system or pattern?”
The reply of the colours in Hekla Dögg’s studio: “We flow on like a stream without an address, get married and separated and just like all rivers flow into the sea, we flow towards the light that you could say is the name of our addressless and concise mother.”
Cmyk → rgb → cmyk - c + m + y = svart – r + g+ b = hvítt → + Hekla Dögg → 6 colours → + Hekla Dögg → 7 colours → + Hekla Dögg → 13 colours. Hekla Dögg dresses a showroom in locks of colours that dance their way down a channel beyond any address.
Kó 2 ii 023
Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir (b. 1969) makes interactive constellations, large-scale paper installations, often resulting in a group or cluster of related things. Often intertwined with creating a dialogue of sound, her work might manifest itself as a frozen puddle in the middle of the summer, pop-up igloos, fireworks, or wishing wells. Her works carry significant moments of wonder, magic, and the unexpected. Time is a fundamental feature that she communicates in diverse and often surprising ways, not only through traditional time-related media, e.g. videos, sound, and performances but also through content and exhibition format. Time appears as a rhythm or a movement, a kind of progression in the form of itself rather than a narrative medium.
Constantly inspired by the creativity of her peers, Hekla has worked to create platforms for other artists, both in her own projects, where artists compose or create work that becomes a part of her installations, as well as through curating. She held the position of a professor of fine arts at the Iceland University of the Arts for a decade, alongside maintaining her art practice from a studio in Reykjavík. Hekla is one of the founders of Kling & Bang gallery in Reykjavík.
Her works have been widely exhibited, at institutions such as The National Gallery of Iceland, The Reykjavik Art Museum, The Centre of Contemporary Art of Gibraltar, Malmö Konsthall in Sweden, TRUCK Contemporary Art in Calgary in Canada, Tate Modern in London, OMR Mexico City, Frac Normandie and Frac Réunion in France, as well as the Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art in Genoa, Italy.