The group that arrived in Þingeyri for the February 2017 residency brought an exceptionally wide range of different experiences and practices to our little village - their projects included soundscapes, hand-drawn illustration, photography, architecture, filmmaking, and more. Read below for a quick profile of each of the artists, and check out our gallery for more photos from the 10 day residency.
Teresa Cobb
Teresa is a graphic designer from the UK who has spent a lot of time the past few years living and working in the Westfjords and in Greenland. During her stay in Thingeyri she has been experimenting with lino printing (printing made from hand-cut blocks and ink), working from the local landscape of the Westfjords for inspiration and subject matter. Most of her work during the residency was created using a technique called reduction or suicide printing: working from one linoleum block and cutting into it, printing and then cutting again to create the next layer of the print. This method means that the artist is limited to however many prints made in the first round and can't print more.
Tomo Takagi
Tomo is a sound artist based in Tokyo, Japan. During his stay in Thingeyri he created a soundscape and 'mindscape' based on his experience of the village and surrounding landscape. He spent time exploring the area and collecting sounds as well as creating more personal sounds on his own - as he says, "I felt my internal voices, and I drew the sound like a diary." His final piece, which he performed at the residency exhibition, was a combination of these external and 'internal' sounds in one piece of music.
You can find more of Tomo's work here: https://soundcloud.com/tomotakagi
Helen Tseng
Helen is a San Francisco-based graphic designer and illustrator. She has a strong interest in spirituality, tarot cards, and the occult, which is reflected in much of her work. During the residency she worked in hand-made illustration and mark-making practice, which she described as creative and meditative at the same time, and she and produced some beautiful abstract geometric drawings to display at the exhibition.
You can check out more of her work at: http://helentseng.com/about/
Oliver Weissfennig
Oliver is an architect who came to Þingeyri from Germany. Oliver has taken a lot of inspiration from the Icelandic landscape during past visits, and during his residency he was thinking about how to develop housing that brings us shelter from the elements without cutting out nature altogether. One of the projects he presented was a design for a house inspired by the shape of the fish drying houses just outside the village combined with the concept of a traditional Icelandic turf house dug into the ground. The design is a familiar shape for a home, but brings the landscape to eye level.
Murray Cummings & Ben Wainright Pierce
Murray (filmmaker) and Ben (a film editor) came as a team to the residency to work on a documentary project. They came to the Westfjords to make use of the solitude and focus on editing, and from what we got to hear of the project during their time at the residency we are all eagerly awaiting the final product when it's released!
Eylul Dogruel
During the residency, Eylul continued on her ongoing project on symbolism around the theme of the sky and its juxtaposition to contemporary narratives. The new works incorporate photographs she has taken in and around Þingeyri. Some of the works can be found at http://s.eyluldogruel.com/westfjordsResidency/
Yurim Moon
Yurim's project theme during the residency was 'Where did you leave, and how far do you think it is?'
Her work is inspired by her time living and traveling abroad. Her work is in a way very personal, and best described in her own words: 'whenever I travel another place, I felt the strong desire to have a home that continue forever. So I always envy the cozy atmosphere and private security of each house. In the Iceland, I worked with this personal story, I took a photography of other persons' house and made a fiction like I'm a resident of that house. Or I made a concept photos and drawing about the feeling of existence who move but always in the same memory of one place.'