A gorgeous video created by Australian Donna Maree Robinson, an artist who stayed with her daughter Abbey at the Nes Art Residency for 2 months during winter. A lovely duo, both who revelled in and made the most of their time in Skagaströnd amongst the snow and ice. Donna currently has an exhibition on in Mackay Queensland titled Far Away Here which was inspired by her residency at Nes.
Showing posts with label NES Artist Residency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NES Artist Residency. Show all posts
Monday, 21 July 2014
Monday, 9 June 2014
Monday Ice: Eldur Á Himni - Fire In The Sky
Even though the northern lights season is over, here is a taster of what you could see during the winter months if you are prepared not to sleep much at night.
Boris Schaarschmidt is a film-maker who was at Nes for the Weight of Mountains residency. During his 3 month stay he chased the lights relentlessly. Eldur Á Himni - Fire In The Sky is the result of his determined and unwavering hunt for the Aurora Borealis.
Monday, 3 March 2014
Monday Ice: The Weight of Mountains
The main impetus for moving here, the instigator of my desire was the draw of the mountains. They physically, psychologically and spiritually affect me and I adore living amongst them.
Over the past few months I have been involved and working with the NES Artist Residency which is situated in the next town a 45 - 1.15 minute drive away, the route taken dependant on the vagaries of the weather. During the last 3 months the NES residency has been focused on film with 10 international film-makers spending the winter in Skagaströnd and creating a response to the theme "The Weight of Mountains", the town and the Icelandic environment.
One of the artists of the residency Temujin Doran from Britain has made a stunningly beautiful, poetic and informative film titled "The Weight of Mountains"...Tem's website is also worthy of lengthy perusal. Enjoy!
Over the past few months I have been involved and working with the NES Artist Residency which is situated in the next town a 45 - 1.15 minute drive away, the route taken dependant on the vagaries of the weather. During the last 3 months the NES residency has been focused on film with 10 international film-makers spending the winter in Skagaströnd and creating a response to the theme "The Weight of Mountains", the town and the Icelandic environment.
One of the artists of the residency Temujin Doran from Britain has made a stunningly beautiful, poetic and informative film titled "The Weight of Mountains"...Tem's website is also worthy of lengthy perusal. Enjoy!
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Amazing Connections!
I visited the NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd on Thursday to view the work of a couple of artists who are at the tail end of their October residency.
Dario Lazzaretto a sound artist from Italy (who I had met on my previous visit to NES) and Georgina Criddle from Australia collaborated on a video projection and soundscape installation that seems to have embedded itself within my psyche and rolls around in my head days later.
It is a work that has such a depth that I find my mind continually going back to it, turning it over and over, pondering different aspects. The piece was a photograph that Georgina had taken of the Icelandic landscape whilst in a moving vehicle, the original image had been enlarged until it is unclear what you are viewing. Parts are familiar but there is a foggy blurryiness to the image and this same obscured, hazy feeling is reiterated in your mind as you try to decipher what you see. It is like rummaging around a vague memory, trying to focus or grasp at something that is really quite imperceptible. I had a heightened sense of the past and felt like I was adrift back through time...which of course is relative...as a photograph is always of what has been.
Dario had stretched the sound of the camera click...the physical act of the camera taking the photo and created an eerie, haunting, even violent at times soundscape that successfully secures the image to itself. It is as much about the physical act of photography as it is about perception and the art of seeing and not seeing...the quick snapshot of a passing landscape that we take to remind us that we were there...we give it a cursory glance...not really looking...it is all rather instant. What Georgina and Dario do is slow down the experience and instead of the fleeting transitory act of snapping this passing landscape we get the chance to stop and wander through it. We are taken on a long expedition into the physical terrain of the photograph, we move around, in, exploring and feeling the unseen and in doing so surprisingly re-discover the image.
A thought provoking work that makes connections with layers of meaning and ideas that continue to play around in my head.
Here in Iceland no one bats an eyelid if you meet someone for the first time and in conversation realise that you are related. It is a fairly common occurrence and many conversations and introductions are started by asking who their family are. They say all Icelanders are related to some degree as its entire population is descended from only a handful of originating Vikings. However for this 6 degree of separation to happen to me, an Australian living on the opposite side of the world to my homeland, family and friends is highly unlikely...or is it?
Imagine my surprise when I realised that the Australian artist Georgina Criddle was from Perth Western Australia and had completed her very same degree at the very same university only a few years after I did mine.
Well so what you say...that is not so unusual...there are only 4 universities in Perth only 3 that have art degrees so the odds are ever decreasing. Scoff at me if you will... but there is more...when I saw Georgina Criddle's name on the NES website I knew that it was more than likely we were related. In Western Australia the Criddle family is huge...very prolific and basically all leaves fall from the one branch that grew around the Dongara, Greenough, Geraldton region in Western Australia back in the early 1800's.
After meeting Georgina and enlightening her to the possibilities of our linked bloodline and armed with a few of her ancestors names I returned home to delve into my genealogy research to find the family connection. And connection indeed...not just one but two. I am pretty certain from the information given that Georgina's gg grandfather was my gg grandfather's brother and this gg grandfather of Georgina also married my g grandmother's sister...are you still with me! So this means we are linked through the Criddle line as well as the Pell line, my g grandparents were a Pell and a Criddle and Georgina's gg grandparents were also a Pell and a Criddle. Therefore in the Criddle line our ggg grandparents are the same people and in the Pell line my gg grandparents are Georgina's ggg grandparents. Hopefully that all makes sense to you!
Absolutely amazing and astounding that we should meet, not in Australia the country we are from or in the city of Perth where we both lived or at the university where Georgina was studying and I was working simultaneously but that we meet here on the other side of the world, in Iceland where it is pretty much a common occurrence to be introduced to someone and discover your related.
Dario Lazzaretto a sound artist from Italy (who I had met on my previous visit to NES) and Georgina Criddle from Australia collaborated on a video projection and soundscape installation that seems to have embedded itself within my psyche and rolls around in my head days later.
Dario had stretched the sound of the camera click...the physical act of the camera taking the photo and created an eerie, haunting, even violent at times soundscape that successfully secures the image to itself. It is as much about the physical act of photography as it is about perception and the art of seeing and not seeing...the quick snapshot of a passing landscape that we take to remind us that we were there...we give it a cursory glance...not really looking...it is all rather instant. What Georgina and Dario do is slow down the experience and instead of the fleeting transitory act of snapping this passing landscape we get the chance to stop and wander through it. We are taken on a long expedition into the physical terrain of the photograph, we move around, in, exploring and feeling the unseen and in doing so surprisingly re-discover the image.
A thought provoking work that makes connections with layers of meaning and ideas that continue to play around in my head.
--------------------------
Imagine my surprise when I realised that the Australian artist Georgina Criddle was from Perth Western Australia and had completed her very same degree at the very same university only a few years after I did mine.
Georgina my 3rd cousin 1x removed
Absolutely amazing and astounding that we should meet, not in Australia the country we are from or in the city of Perth where we both lived or at the university where Georgina was studying and I was working simultaneously but that we meet here on the other side of the world, in Iceland where it is pretty much a common occurrence to be introduced to someone and discover your related.
Friday, 30 September 2011
NES Artist Residency
Sometimes you don't realise what you miss until you taste it again. Back in Australia I had a circle of artist friends and whilst we may not have soley just talked art...it was always a regular topic that would flow naturally into our conversations. So when out of the blue I received an email from a printmaker who was in Iceland on an Artist Residency who wished to pop by and meet me...I said yes!
Hideki as he desribes himself is a 6ft Japanese with an English accent who is on his 3rd visit to Iceland (staying longer each time) and considering a 4th. When Hideki and another NES artist Mia were in Sauðárkrókur one day they called by for a Kaffí and chat. Hideki had come across my name in a brochure that was advertising adult education workshops and thought this is no Icelandic name and through the power of the internet came across my blog and in reading realised I had also met Emma Lindsay as he did when she was here.
Hideki was one of the September group of artist at the NES Residency in Skagastönd about a 40 minute drive from here. Last week there was an open day to share this group of artist's work with the community before they all leave for their homelands. I had been meaning to visit the residency before this...but just had not got around to it. Meeting Hideki and Mia earlier in the week ensured that I would not miss this open day.
Hideki and I at the Open Studio event
Photo by Ingeun
The NES Residency which is set up quite differently to Bær, offers studio space and living quarters for a small fee. The housing provided is quite separate to the studio space and the participants reside in four houses/apartments scattered around the small town.
The studio space is a large building (shed like) near the docks located right on the beach where all the artists communally share the space...dividing it up into smaller areas for each to work in...reminding me very much of the studio areas at art school.
The open studio evening was great, I thoroughly enjoyed walking around each artists space and chatting with them about their work. It was inspiring to see such a diverse group from around the globe, America, UK, South Korea, Australia, Italy and Germany plus to get a little peek in to their artistic practice.
Hideki's space
Hideki chatting to a group of children about serious art business!
Unfortunately I was too busy chatting and not taking the time to photograph all the works on show...will try and do a better job at the next one. However the group of artists at this residency for the month of September 2011 were...
Lily Angotty - American
Hideki Arichi - British
Annika Bastacky - American
Ben Borden - American
Joseph Breikers - Australian
David Ertel - American
Mia Hochrein - German
Ingeun Kim - South Korean
Dario Lazzaretto - Italian
Matthew G Shelley - American
Later that evening when I was taking Perla for a walk and gazing up into the northern lights that were putting on quite a show, I realised
just how much I missed viewing and chatting about art. However even
though this town is a little isolated I am still only 30-40 minutes away from
two wonderful International Art residency programs where I can meet
artists from around the world. So I intend to be a regular visitor at
any open days that NES or Bær run in the future.
This is an old pic from Olga's camera last year...my little point and shoot camera will not successfully photograph the
Aurora Borealis.
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