Þórdís Erla Zoëga
Tell us about your background and what made you decide to be an artist?
I was born in Reykjavík, Iceland. I always wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember. Even though the idea of what an artist is changed when I got older. I was always drawing as a kid and very ambitious about it and always trying to push myself to get better. In my teenage years, I got to use my parent’s garage as a studio and was making a lot of experiments there. I really took the step to start learning art properly when I was 18 and changed colleges to go to an art college. There I feel like I got the tools to get into Rietveld.
Does the Icelandic landscape influence your work?
I’m not sure it does. At least not intentionally but it probably does sub-consciously. I think I’m more influenced by light. Iceland is situated very close to the North Pole so we get very different light conditions depending on what month it is. I’ve also been told that my colour palette is very Icelandic.
What inspired you to create Wallcarpets?
The Wallcarpet works sparked in Berlin, a year after graduating from the Rietveld Academy, NL. I was feeling very homesick and trying to figure out what to do with my life so I started drawing rugs that I connect with home and family life. I started them as intricate drawings of Persian rugs but they evolved quickly to more abstract line drawings that were about gaining symmetry and balance for the eye.
The first outdoor rug that I made was in LUNGA, an art festival for young people in Iceland. There I created the Shore Carpet, a work that was assembled by stones from the shore and painted in various colours. The carpet was laying on the shore and twice a day the ocean flooded over the stones creating an "ocean carpet". Gradually the ocean dissolved the pattern that created the rug.
I was then given the opportunity to make a proposal for the project A Gable and a Yard for Reykjavík Art Festival in 2016, curated by Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson and Mika Hannula, in collaboration with the city of Reykjavik and Icelandair Hotels. I presented the idea of painting a large Wallcarpet on the gable where I was working with the concept of taking over a space that once was; creating a temporary home where there will no longer be a home. The Wallcarpet was placed over 3 floors of an old building that used to be a living area in the centre of Reykjavík. The spaces that used to be there create the grid of the pattern of the rug. Later that same summer I got invited to create a rug on the asphalt in front of Gerðarsafn. I think art and design are very connected. Art has more freedom to create something beautiful and abstract while I feel like design is more about creating something functional. When these two things meet in the middle then something nice happens. I decided to go and learn web development because I really like the internet as a medium and its capacity to reach people. I learned there though that I don’t want to become a programmer, but I really like the visual aspect of coding, like how easy it is to create movement and animation with CSS and Javascript. I also got much better at graphic design.
What did you enjoy about studying in the Audio/Visual Department at the Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam?
I really enjoyed the freedom. I create better stuff when I’m allowed to come up with my own ideas and concept. I also really liked the people I got to know there. I still talk to them on weekly basis even though we are situated all over the world.
Do you feel that your work has one running theme?
One of my favourite works is the work Trilemma. It was my graduation work and I got the opportunity to show it in the Reykjavík Art Museum in 2015. The work is an installation with 3 chairs, 3 one way mirrors, checkered tile floor material and shapes on walls. The installation is a kind of a stage researching reflection, shadow images and learned perception. The floor creates the setting. On the floor the mirrors are standing in a zik zak position and the chairs are situated around the mirrors in a controlled way; every chair is mirrored exactly by the reflection of the chair opposite from it.
While walking around it the viewer comes to realize that everything is as it seems but while realising the understanding of his misunderstanding, tries to find flaws in the plan and questions what he is actually seeing. The chairs suggest that you are allowed to sit on them and then be a part of the installation. When only one person sits in it, it looks like he is a ghost as he can only see the silhouette of himself sitting on the opposite chairs. When two people sit opposite each other, it looks as if their two bodies merge into one, creating the very intimate experience of seeing yourself merge into another person. I’ve made this work a few times in different forms in different exhibitions. It always creates a lot of attention and people love seeing themselves differently.
Other editions can be found here and here. The exhibitions Adjustment and Harmony looked very different in medium and installation but the starting point was very similar. In Harmony, I played with repetition, symmetry and balance with printed custom-designed stickers and handmade vinyl forms on laminated plexiglass plates. The translucent material makes a distorted shadow on its surroundings and creates a new image. Computer-generated shapes along with handmade geometrical shapes form together symmetry and chaos but harmonise on the plastic canvas. The struggle between the digital and the analogue unite, level out and live forever in the plastic. The adjustment was an installation with 10 paintings and a painted floor. The paintings were made in the manner of ‘one act leads to another in a kind of meditative state. They were striving for symmetry and balance and were considered ready when they were balanced for the eye
What are you working on at the moment?
For the past months I've been working on a new work for the outdoor area of The Konsúlat Hotel in Reykjavík. The work is called “Daily shift" and is composed of two large plexiglass circles with 2 different dichroic films. They are placed with a little bit of distance on two sides of a gable. One is facing East and the other one South. They both catch the sun and follow its journey for as long as they can according to how they are situated. The nature of the dichroic film is that it's changing it's colour depending on how light hits it. So the colours and hues are ever changing on it throughout the day. The material casts different coloured shadows through itself, its reflection and on itself. The sunlight in Iceland is very different between months and it will be very interesting to document the work throughout the year. I got invited to make a proposal for this space from the curator of A Gable and a Yard , Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson. We have worked on a few projects together and have very good synergy. We will also be exhibiting together in Akureyri Art Museum in February 2021. I will also have a short exhibition at Núllið. It‘s a small space that used to be a men’s toilet, by the most walked street in Iceland. I will be making an installation with some dichroic plexi shapes, light and motors. I think it will be really fun to make and will talk together with ‘Daily shift’ that you can see from the entrance of the exhibition space.
Why do you think that geometrical patterns continue to appear in your work? Do you believe in the stars?
I think of them as meditative and abstract rather than intentional. I used to make drawings and paintings that were always telling a story and very figurative, but the backgrounds were always very geometric and full of patterns. At some point I felt that aspect was more interesting than drawing actual people. I like creating something abstract that is open for the viewer to interpret how he sees fit. I’m into the internal energy, about finding balance in all our actions. I don’t really believe that the stars control our actions or fate. But I believe the moon has an effect on the water in our body like it has an effect on the ocean. I feel like geometry is something for humans to make sense out of the world. It’s everywhere, f.e. the golden ratio.
Would you say you’re in control over your work or that it has a life of its own?
I think it depends on the work. Usually, when I start a new work I have been thinking about it for a while so the first few ones (I usually make series) don’t take that much time working on, but when I take them further and work more on them I always hit a wall at some point. But that’s the best part. That’s when something interesting happens.
What are you most looking forward to?
My fiancée and I are starting a design studio where the first project is creating a brand of vinyl rugs designed by us. It will be a project that is dancing on the line of fine art and design and a really fun platform for us to experiment. We are making a webshop around it and want to make fun marketing campaigns. We got a grant from the Icelandic Design Fund to kickstart it which was a huge honour. The exhibition at Núllið, it opens November 21st, 2019.
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