hybrid: lava & light - 2013 residency and exhibition in akureyri iceland

Debora AlannaSelected works produced in the

Akureyri Artists Studio ResidencyWith studio work at Punkturrin in Rósenborg

Hybrid: Lava & Light[solo exhibition]Populus Tremula GalleryJune 2013

Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora Alanna 1

Hybrid: Lava & Light

I am a hybrid, and love my heritage, my Icelandic roots, connections with my mother and her family lineage. Travelling, working in Iceland in 2013 seemed vital to learning more about the depths and mystery of my heritage through contact with the place my ancestors came from. Lava and light became catalysts for my adventure and inspired, prompted subsequent work.


Why Iceland? ~ My story.

I first learned about Iceland through my grandparents, my mother’s parents.

Ingibjorg, my grandmother sang Icelandic sagas from memory, a capella,

taught me Icelandic folklore and nourished me with Icelandic food.

Thorvalder, my grandfather was a storyteller. He employed folk remedies. In

my childhood, Grýla was always lurking, and other huldufolk afforded

mischievous antics to admire.

Dreams were symbols and messages evoking Icelandic confidence. It seems I

was in the midst of ancient Icelandic influence progressing into

conceptualization through my art, which I addressed in new work, in

Iceland.


Ancestral & familial ties

Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora Alanna

Extended family, cultural heritage provided a continuity of familial spirit during my residency in Iceland.

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My grandmother, Ingibjorg pictured here at aged 20 something dominated my thoughts and working process while in Iceland.


Akuryeri Iceland


Akuryeri is a city situated in Northern Iceland where many artists live and work. The town afforded a beautiful, vibrant setting to work in residence.

Welcomed by new colleagues, visiting the town’s amenities, I felt inspirited to work in new ways . 6

Akureyri Artists Studio – Gil Society

My juried residency at the Akuryeri Artists Studio (Gestavinnustofa Gilfélagsins / Gil Society) in Akureyri Iceland was central, comfortable and availed ample space to work.


Works on paperAll works: 16 x 24” / water soluble wax pastels

(other materials stated on individual slides)

cover – In the heat


Work produced duringAkureyri Artists Studio ResidencyAkureyri IcelandJune 2013

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Huldufólk

Through my childhood I was in the midst of ancient Icelandic influence progressing into myth and poetics through abstraction and figuration through my art, which I began to address in new work, in Iceland.

This is the first drawing I made during my Akuryeri residency at the Akuryeri Artists Studio: http://artistsstudio.blogspot.ca/2008/01/guest-studio.html

Huldufólk is an image of the hidden people that occupy Iceland’s folklore. I felt their presence first during a visit to Árnes prior to my residency.Hybrid: Lava & Light

© Debora Alanna

Graphite on paper

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http://artistsstudio.blogspot.ca/2008/01/guest-studio.html



Mythic Norse Tool to Forage for Inspiration

Hybrid: Lava & Light became a month of accessing Icelandic poetics, forces of culture and sensibilities. My ardent plunge into my surroundings and heritage, my psyche required wielding this fabulous tool to hone in on Icelanders’ natures, Icelandic forms and cadences. I was able to bridge the deep lore and imbibe Icelandic intrigue thorough my residency. I needed to use this device to alight on and extract, articulate the vastness about me. I implemented my machination with this grapple.

Dry pastels on paper


When the sun burns shadows grow

Icelandic light was pervasive during my June residency. All vegetation seemed consumed by the light’s power, its sustained brilliance. My colour palate, previously fairly muted, suddenly burst forth with glorious intensity.

This work addresses the deep shadows that occurred with the continuous sun shine.

The work addresses the burning of desire, the shadows of isolation and its release, allowing colourful munificence, a generosity of spirit that grows from the Jungian archetype, shadow, that acknowledges the primitive sexual, assertive, sometimes quarrelsome instincts.Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora

Alanna

ink, acrylic, water soluble wax pastels on paper

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Where the wall leans a little – cerulean

I began to connect with my cultural source, with Iceland and its people, the origins of my culture and its complexity in present time. I began to assimilate Icelandic strength and diversity. Icelanders have specific insight, fierce autonomy and I am proud of my heritage.

Leaning, the predilection to favour or rely on an idea allows an inclination to some slant, that might fall short, or separate from the hold on the thought, allowing the trespass of wonder, a space where cursive lines, articulated space evolves into a conflicting but vigorous space for contemplation.



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Walking in the Sunny Wind

Iceland, its people, the land urged me to consider the poetics of space, Iceland’s physical and emotional space.

Walking in often windy weather, the I began to plot the path from here to there, the Akureyri streetscape as a sensory manifestation.

My route to the grocery store, via the liquor store became a visual poem of wind blown enjoyment.


Summer remembers winter

Summer remembers winter shows the incongruity of memory, how seasons clash and retain their presence throughout all seasons.

Looking up the street from the Akueryri Artists Studio residence, buildings seem to retain a memory of snow and ice, of cold, winter’s substance.

The transitory experience of seasons, phases defined by weather or life stages does not escape memory’s retention and consequential layers of flurry and storm, glistening splendour, seasonal advantages and attractions. This work translates some of this memory processing. Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora

Alanna

patching compound, acrylic, water soluble wax pastels on paper

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Once upon a lava field - inspiration


In Iceland, lava fields are new and old. This is a photograph taken in an old moss covered lava field near where farmers keep horses. The summer green mounds are lush and flagrant in their barefaced exposure, manifesting the original, but worn lava undulations.

I sat on this lava field prior to working in the Akureyri residency.

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Once upon a lava fieldWork practices were

transformed by Iceland’s physicality.

Iceland’s valiant potency and fortitude determined how I followed through with my project, evolving poetic Icelandic intangibles into transformative work – converting Icelandic energy through my art practice.

Sitting on a lava field allowed me an integration within the influence of lava, its discharge, its eventual land formation and acceptance, and felt the resolve of Iceland’s people to continue to live and thrive on lava landscapes.


Eyjafjörður

Water through the Eyjafjörður bay, delta afforded access to Akureyri from the North Atlantic ocean. This water, the terrain of the whales, water birds and fish banked Akureyri with a turbulence, accessing food, bringing the Northern community prosperity of tourism.


Throwing the boulder down the mountain she lost her head

Reflecting on the Eyjafjörður water and surrounding mountains, reading Icelandic myths and legends, basking in the sun day and night, I became the subject of my own myth.

Cartooning has not ever been a part of my art practice. I had not painted much prior to this residency. Suddenly, I am depicting humorous situations , symbolic and wry, living and working characterized in any of the Icelandic sagas or eddas.


A view of the Akureyri Artists Residency

& Eyjafjörður River delta harbour


This photo looks down at the residency studio building, centre, just behind the parking lot after the curve in the road. The residency door is on the far right. You can see the skylights on the flat roof of the studio, to the right of a green embankment. Beyond you can see the Eyjafjörður bay with a cruise ship docked in its harbour.

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Some things are not shadow when the sun fades

Walking, too along the Eyjafjörður river delta, along side mountains in every direction, I began to sense apparitions.

This creature followed me all the way back to the residency studio from a nearby hillside.

The work is a huldefolk visage, with its consternation. The work is a presentiment of its discomfort. Foreboding, and a little menacing, it is a portrait of a staunch creature of the night. Summer nights in Iceland is bright, and the creature’s trepidation at being found out is apparent and captured in the work.


Summer Solstice in Akuryeri


Working in June, the sun was nearing and entered the summer solstice. This photo was taken of the 3am sky, with pink colouring the single cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky on the 21st of June. The sustaining of light affected huldefolk antics. My thought processes embraced the antics and light, separately and together.

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Mischief

Sleeplessness, with not remembering or realizing what time of day I was working in played on my imagination, affected the subject and treatment of figure/subject and colouration of my work.

Mischief is the waywardness of the huldefolk, their antics in combination with the Icelandic landscape and solstice sun, gleaned when I was sleep-awake. Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora

Alanna 22

How broken promises are like broken teeth

During the course of my residency I developed a tooth ache. This is how my toothache felt before dental surgery.

A different kind of mischief...


Acrylic, plaster bandage, ink, water soluble wax pastels

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I am a teapot but I like coffee

Self portraiture serves to offer me insight into how I am feeling at any given moment. Here, I show my ideas are brewing, post tooth surgery.

This portrait depicts me as a teapot, a character I assumed when performing in a figure skating presentation as a child.

Childhood memories are strong and enduring. Juxtaposing my love of coffee (within the title), with my adult self living and working in Iceland seems to show how I can maintain the childlike joy at playful caricature while working to expend significant considerations.

To me, the drawing of the neck and collar is sculpture ideas hearkening.


Me, as Huldefolk

A self portrait, embodying the huldefolk as self allowed me to emotively respond to the Icelandic myth and lore.

I am utilizing a similar colour palate to the work in the previous slide. However, the treatment of the self image is entirely different.

The emotional intensity experienced working in Iceland manifests as flame.


Balancing in the heat of the stretch


This work is my growing intensity through my dwelling within Icelandic sensibilities, exploration, discoveries about its people and the land that spoke to me.

Feeling that I was extending, stretching my intuitive and objective self, I accepted the stretch as a significant opportunity to exert a brighter and enjoyable colour palate, a figurative departure, allowing the power of each insight to manifest as constructs of emotion with pensive outbursts.

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Layers of Iceland modified my mind...



A transition occurred in my work during the Akureyri residency. I began to leave the literal and mythologized concepts and work with ideas that translated the environment to new experiences, feelings, thoughts that had no previous definition.

These works became haptic spaces.

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My heart is the weight of lava in the stratosphere

This work reveals my unconscious response to the Icelandic environment, delving into its land composition influence.

My colour palate is consistency hot. Although the blue skies, blue mountains, blue water was all around me, reds, oranges, intense colours emerged as my colours of choice, of how I felt about the unspoken sensibilities of the Icelandic psyche, my psyche in relation to where I was, what I was experiencing. Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora

Alanna


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Calling Vilborgs’ raven for help through the crack of time

My mother, Jona was nicknamed Crow, being very white blonde, and mischievous in her youth. Her presence was alive during this residency.

The title of this work refers to an Icelandic tale that originates from Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman-Islands), where my grandmother lived. Villborg was a woman kind to ravens and one saved her from a landslide because of her kindness. My mother became a nurse, and was aptly nicknamed, allegorically.



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Kali monkeying around – speaking to Freya in a Bonsai garden somewhere in Iceland

Inevitably, my residency in Iceland became a mental visit to other residency experiences.

Memories of my residency in India, and an amalgam of the mythological Hindu imagery (Kali, goddess of empowerment, Hanuman (monkey), Shiva’s avatar , Kali’s consort, a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion) with Freya’s story, where she is taken hostage (goddess of sex, fertility, war, and wealth) combined into this work.

The garden the work takes place in seems to have shrunk to Bonsai size.


Investigating and integrating Icelanders’ thought process, their understanding of life into new work, within the opportunity available through the Akureyri Artists Residency program, I began reflecting on my past in new ways.


Street art – Akureyri. Artist unknown. Photo by Debora Alanna

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Studio life


Studio life involved living to work with the aid of constant light to confuse and sustain work - forgetting to sleep, a topsy turvey existence where work was dominant and continuous.

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A pillow for Pollock’s ghost in Iceland

Dwellings and especially the relationship people have to what they value, delving into time through narratives allows seeing, converting the tender tangibility of these poetic experiences into my work.

Although this work was initially based on a pillow on the residency couch, when Jackson Pollock’s spirit visited, it required a prop up. This pillow painting is the cushion between historical reference and wild imaginings in my Iceland residency.



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Swans under wire in a pool pond

Pragmatic wires across a swan pond near the public pool instilled an uneasiness, a brooding impediment argufying civilized constraints.

Most works in this series could be reconfigured for larger works in acrylic or oil. This work, although it captures the swan park seems to be a notation for a further treatment.

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When hearing the plight of the world fades the sky

Shapes, forms and shadows are strongly featured in my work. Shapes that delineate or contour, forms that hold, structure and perform as the essence of what has been shaped. Shadows work as interception, influence, mirrors.

This work shapes emotional responses to planetary concerns of pollution, its impact on our shared oceans and air, its affects on people in the global community. The forms within the work transfigure human features, and foreshadows the loss of planetary integrity, an human foibles that choose to engage in harmful exploits, actions that devastate on our planet.


The river runs up

My awareness of Icelandic sensibilities were enhanced through accessing intimacy of place - Iceland’s landscapes.

Lots of streams and rivulets, waterfalls worked their way down from the nearby mountains.

This work is about a waterway running up, a reverse motion to natural, existing waterways.

Shown is the creative act, how going against the flow, inverting presumptions of normalcy results in transposing thoughts, charging the physicality of place, the human experience with a converse course. Connecting the source of flow with the sky illustrates the connectivity possible through the emerging synergetic current.


Sun of the day of the sun sun day

June, the month of my residency was dominated by the ever present sun.

Sun of the day of the sun sun day shows how the sun moved around the sky above, fulsome, changing its quality and position a little by the hour but remained ubiquitous.

The sun’s sphere, its glow became a sculptural entity, more than light, more than a orb in the sky. Each hour’s sun married itself to the next, where the sky lost its presence when cloudless. The sky was almost always cloudless, with the prevailing sun circling, ever immediate. Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora

Alanna

Dry pastel on paper

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In preparation for beginning sculpture work, I did a flurry of drawing on 6 x 8” paper

with dry pastels, the same medium as in the previous slide. Sculpture forms, ideas began to surge, some seen in this selection of

drawings.

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Part 1: LandscapesWhen the mountain divides the sun and the moonLeaningCleaveEyeingWhen the sun is held by the sky and the land



Sculpture

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Carving Styrofoam(for Landscapes)

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Artist colleague Gunnar Kr Jónassonkindly offered a bag of Styrofoam remnants to work with. Using an incising knife I found in a drawer and rasps brought with me, I was able to cut and shape a set of works I collectively called Landscapes.


Process...

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An influence...


Einar Jónsson (1874-1954) was a relative on my grandmother’s side of the family. I was happy to visit his house turned museum of his work in Reykjavik prior to my residency. I had seen photographs of his work in catalogues my relatives had collected over the years.

Jónsson’s sculpture felt deeply part of my psyche. Experiencing them showed me a dimension of my art practice that is inherent and profound, connected to who I am as an artist.

Working in white, the Styrofoam allowed a succinct translation of Iceland’s landscape that connected with Jónsson’s sensibility.

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http://www.lej.is/en/

When the mountain divides the sun and the moon


Struck by the variety of mountain formations, what was as thrilling was seeing the sun and the moon together in the sky, once between a mountain peaks of a mountain range. This image translated to this sculpture.

This work is also showing how the mountainous can be balanced by the enormity of light and how reconfiguring dimensions can allow playful interplay in lives lived.

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Leaning

Leaning is not a freestanding work. It must be propped against a wall or a edifice, structure. The work presupposes a need for or dependency of something else for its existence. It is essentially autonomous. The lean of Leaning is critical to its display.

The work is a vertical turbulence connected to a sharp, steep curve to around its back. The vertical is a longing to the upper stratosphere, a movement of hope and aspiration. The curve is the grounding , an intrepid arm of encouragement. Together, the expectant optimism and assurance are not enough. The composition slants towards, is sustained by otherness.


Cleave (a conversation)


The word, cleave means to split, penetrate, divide as in a cleft, disassociate, divide, segment, as a clove. The word also means to adhere, be faithful, hold together. Cleave (a conversation) employs the duality of the meaning.

Conversations have many characteristics, depending on who is engaged in the action. This work suggests the character of a conversation showing to entail separate component bound to connect and yet diverge.

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Eyeing

Eyeing is about how the land and the viewer correlate. The viewer integrates their spirit with land, blends their awareness with the immensity of the land. The land envelops the viewer.

In this work, the land emulates, takes on the characteristics of people that acknowledge its presence. The land becomes an organ of sensation. Eyeing is a recognisable integral of land liveliness.

Eyeing demonstrates how the symbiotic affects people and place as witness and overseer through reciprocal sentience.


When the sun is held by the sky and the land


I experienced expansive skies and vast surrounding waters that fused with mountain ranges. The vistas seemed to hold the perpetual summer sun during my residency. Sun, the orb, seemed to be embraced, cleaved to by the sky that merged with the waters amalgamated with mountains in their monochrome, clinging to one another as a unifying association. The sun, central and ever present formed an attachment between the advancing, enfolding and encircling natures of its surrounds.

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Landscapes ~ installation


Punturrin (in Rósenborg)

Punkturrin is a community creative centre. Akureyri residents come to the ground floor studios to learn about and make ceramics, weave and undertake knitting projects, slump glass and participate in other crafting endeavours.

Using the studio and kiln as a guest to make glass sculpture was assisted by their craft leaders.


Punkturinn glass studio


Punkturinn (the Point) is a community crafts facility, a series of public craft studios located in the lower level of the Rósenborg building, centre of social and human rights.

Icelandic Eye(s) was produced and fired in the glass studio.

Technology assistance was provided by artist and glass technologist Ragney Guðbjartsdóttir.

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Sculpture


Part 2: Icelandic Eye(s)

Icelandic Eye(s) – mould making

Learing Punturrin existed, I visited the facility to discover a kiln and assistance to make Icelandic Eyes.

5 moulds were made. Carving wet plaster mixed with a hardener enabled 5 unique sculpture formations.


Icelandic Eye(s) – circle cutting

Using a circle cutter, cutting glass from a single sheet to prevent kiln breakage.

The circles were further cut to develop texture on the final kiln fired work.


Icelandic Eye(s) – glass release & assembly


Tapping out the circle shapes after incising sheet.

Organizing and assembling cut glass.

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Icelandic Eye(s) – pupil

Smashing lava to make centres for Icelandic Eye(s).

Experiment (sample) to ensure lava would not explode in kiln. Lava fragment sandwiched between 2 pieces of glass fired prior to sculpture construction.


Icelandic Eye(s) - construction

Icelandic Eye moulds dry and ready for glass treatment.

Icelandic Eye – prepped in mould with lava centre (pupil).


Icelandic Eye(s) - firing

Icelandic Eye (s) in kiln ready to be fired.

Icelandic Eye (s) – prepped inmould before firing.

The glass on the moulds was fired for 24 hours.


Icelandic Eye(s) – post firing


Once the glass on the moulds has fired and cooled for 1-2 hours, moulds are broken to remove the glass, and ensure each sculpture is unique.

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Icelandic Eye(s) - 1


Icelandic Eye(s) – 2 & 3


Icelandic Eye(s) – installation


Icelandic Eye(s) – Installation


Displayed on green velvet, 5 kiln fired glass slumped over hand carved moulds with lava centres formed Icelandic Eye(s).

Stage lighting arranged behind the installationfurther enhanced the work.

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Sculpture


Part 3: The World is Askew~ an installation.

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The World is Askew - PremiseMaybe it was the constant summer equinox light that triggered this work –

perhaps the light component, the spheres of light within the work. Maybe it was being on ancestral land, going back and going forward in time the allowed the constructed waves above the main structure to vehemently undulate. Maybe it was the realisation of returning to a place held as a dream by my mother, grandparents that allowed the dream-like glow of the work.

Maybe it was being in the midst of a place where culture thrives in spite of isolation, a country that seems bare but is redolent with life that began the thoughts of variance within the work. Maybe it is the honouring of stories that live luxuriously in the hearts and minds of its citizens that allowed the wafting of texture.

Maybe it was my growing awareness of environmental acuity in a place where geothermal energy is coveted world wide, where harvesting the fish is still possible, where imported food is still prevalent that initiated the triangular forms, teeth of a monster jaw, a whale of indentation.

Maybe it is because in spite of strengths that Icelanders as world citizens appreciate and share in their abundance, there is a quiet disturbance felt by everyone in this country, shared by many in other countries. Concerns of environmental abuse discomfit. Strained political relations generate detrimental outcomes and warring factions. Ancient lessons are ignored or dismissed as irrelevant or impossible. Enough, plenty is contrasted with a scarcity of sense, fear. The world is askew.


The World is Askew: Beginning

Outside the residency door, large swaths of vinyl, yellow plastic tape, 2 x 2” wood lengths were awaiting recycling, remnants of a builder’s job.

Found material seemed integral to the work. I was delighted to find material I could use right outside the residency door. It seemed to be waiting for harvest.


The World is Askew – found material


Utilizing found materials seemed appropriate and applicable to my thoughts about, need for making an installation at the Populus Tremula, an integral component of Hybrid: Lava & Light.

Found material has a long history that I have not easily adopted. I felt I needed to transgress previous work practices to enable a diagonal thought trajectory. Using found material formed oblique transverse work to connect with disparate thoughts.

The main studio space had adequate room to lay out the wood. I found mismatched hinges to join lengths of wood to each other.

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The World is Askew – work in progress


Framing the work began by joining the lengths of wood, awry. No joint was to be true. No length of wood level.

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Swaths of vinyl were washed, laid out on the floor to plan how they were to be used within the work.

Some round cuts had been made in one piece of vinyl. Developing these cuts seemed integral to the work.

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Circles were fortified with found yellow tubing spliced to extend the segment lengths.

Plastic bags were split to devise portholes, apertures to the light that would be projected within and through the work.

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Back view of The World is Askew. The reverse (unexhibited

view) of the vinyl stapled to the frame, the plastic glued to the apertures and draped from the top mast is drying in these views.

A blue plastic swath was stapled to the very top, undulating as a queasy feeling.

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The World is Askew – closer look: installation


Top detail view: The World is Askew.

Detail of a carved

Styrofoam insert.

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The World is Askew – closer look: installation


Middle of work with circular ports. 75

The World is Askew


Hybrid – Lava & LightInstallation view – Populus Tremula Gallery


Special thanks to my family & all the friends & colleagues that encouraged me to embark on this residency adventure, promoted my project among their friends and colleagues to enable funding to travel, make work and show in Iceland.

Thanks to everyone who attended my exhibition in person and online!

Thanks to all the buoyant enthusiastic people that offered moral support,

promotional supportto help me realise Hybrid: Lava & Light!


Thank you to my funders!


During my Indiegogo campaign, the following people (in alphabetical order) donated to enable my residency and exhibition, provided the means to travel to Iceland, work and produce Hybrid: Lava & Light.

YOU ARE STARS!1. Anonymous x 42. Glenn Alteen (Canada)3. Bruce Esplin (Australia)4. Candace Forbes (Canada)5. Roy Green (Canada)6. Gaetano de Gregorio (Italy)7. Jane Hsiaoching Wang (USA)8. James K-M (Canada)9. Nancy Masson (Canada)10.Kaethe Sabr (Canada)11.Richard Streitmatter-Tran (Vietnam)12.Jillian Player (Canada)13.Susan Pyne x 2 (Canada)14.Chris de Vries (Canada)

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Thank you to everyone in Iceland that helped me accomplish

Hybrid: Lava & Light !Þakka þér að á Íslandi allir sem hjálpuðu mér að ná

Hybrid: Lava & Light!


Special thanks to: Sérstakar þakkir til:

Gyða Bergþórsdóttir & Mundi / familyGuðrún Jóhanna Guðmundsdóttir & Jóhannes / family

Ragney Guðbjartsdóttir Sigríður Erna Ingólfsdóttir

Gunnar Kr Jónasson Aðalsteinn Svanur Sigfússon

Kristján Pétur Sigurðsson Bessi Skírnisson

Akureyri Artists Studio - Gestavinnustofa Gilfélagsins á Akureyri - Gil Society

ÁsprentMenningarráð Eyþings

PunkturrinPopulus Tremula

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hybrid: lava & light - 2013 residency and exhibition in akureyri iceland

Travel

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