Routine

2022

Solo exhibition at Listasafn Árnesinga, Hveragerði, Iceland

Curated by Erin Honeycutt

In Hringrás / Routine, a circle of plexiglass encased in dichroic film rotates clockwise like a planetary diagram from the ceiling, casting an array of variable lighting effects on the floor of the exhibition space. A spotlight illuminates the circle, creating a play of shape and shadow in the recesses of the room. Further adding to the effect is a spiral etching within the glass that creates more variables for distortion in the rotation. This movement is traced on the floor as a kind of immersive engagement with the image. Much like her floor pieces and her wall rugs, the viewer is asked to engage with the props of the room as a prop for an image. In this case, the images are cartographies of light where light becomes a fabric with a sense of touch, evoked visually and yet at the limits of vision. Without adhering to the representation of figures, the lines and forms take on a life of their own.

Þórdís’ use of dichroic film can be seen as a kind of archaeology into the nature of the image; the first step towards using the image as a starting point to guide the viewer into other modes of perception. The way in which dichroic film is used as a sculptural object that has its own agency in casting light on the floor creates a performance of the image that forces the body into the reception of the image in a continuum of its appearance and disappearance. In this space of its disappearance, an invitation to engage in a distinctly cinematic way is brought to the viewer. This dynamic materiality brings the body into a relationship with technologies that recreate a sense of the pre-existing sensuality of existing in the world.

Text by Erin Honeycutt

Interview on Rúv national tv

The concept of the work refers to never ending routine of opening and closing curtains that the rotation of the earth compels us to do every day. The act of greeting a new day is a human routine that we all have in common, but is controlled by the relationship between the Earth and the Sun. From the dawn of time our circadian rhythm has been closely connected to the sun but with the technological advances our internal clock is now interrupted and reprogrammed by blue light emitting screes.