The Living Art Museum opens a new international art exhibition on Saturday, May 7th at 4pm in Nýló, Völvufell 13 – 21, in Breidholt. Infinite Next is an international group exhibition of works by Anna Líndal, Amy Howden-Chapman, Bjarki Bragason, Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir & Mark Wilson, Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir and Pilvi Takala. Inifinity is limitless, there is endless space, size or context and it is impossible to measure or view it in entirety.
Works in the exhibition each deal with systems which all societies struggle with; late-capitalism, ecosystems in degradation, human experiments to alter the environment, knowledge production, manifestations and the effects of humans on the environment.
Since the beginning of agriculture and with the industrial revolution, which took place between 1760 and 1820-40, humans have become a geological force. Human activity began to mark deeper footprints on the planet and cause changes to natural processes. Today the effects are apparent in climate change, which is hard to quantify as an entirety, instead it appears as fragments in all things, as an imbalance in bio systems, droughts or rain, as changes in circumstances and future prospects of all species. Recently in world history, culture has been able to produce products that continue to have an impact dozens of millennia after the production or their use occurred.
Thus, the residue of atomic bombs will spread and glaciers melt, thousands of years after the plug has been pulled on all the world’s factories. The geological timeframe has overlapped with the human timeframe for the first time. Ahead are endless connections between processes that upon first sight are not directly related; communities of the past and the present infiltrate the future, which individuals try to imagine and locate themselves within, while political power systems struggle to form common goals. The exhibition will run until June 19th.
Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir & Mark Wilson, You Must Carry Me Now
Amy Howden-Chapman is an artist and writer, originally from New Zealand, currently based in the USA. She holds an honors degree in Art History and a MA in creative writing from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. Through a practice that utilizes performance, moving image and printed matter her work investigates the tension between capitalist ideology and environmental protection. Along with Abby Cunnane she is a co-founder of The Distance Plan, a project that brings together artists, writers and designers to promote discussion of climate change within the arts. The Distance Plan works through exhibitions, public forums and the Distance Plan Press which produces publications, including artists books and annual journal.
Anna Líndal studied at the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts and completed her graduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 1990. In 2012 she finished an MA of Research in Art from St Lucas University College of Art & Design, Antwerp. Since 1990 she has been active in numerous exhibitions in Iceland and abroad, she took part in the Istanbul Biennial in 1997, On life, beauty, translation and other difficulties curated by Rosa Martinez. The Kwangju Biennial, Man + Space, South Korea in 2000 curated by René Block and the Reykjavik Arts Festival in 2005 and 2008. Líndal’s recent solo exhibitions are Mapping the Impermanence at the ASI Art Museum and Context Collections / Lines, Harbinger, Reykjavik. Anna was a professor in Fine Art at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2000 – 2009.
Bjarki Bragason studied at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, Universität der Künste Berlin, and received an MFA from CalArts, Los Angeles in 2010. In his work he often discusses history, time, identity construction and the proliferation of political histories through fragments and ruins of buildings or natural structures. Recent solo exhibitions include Past Understandings and Desire Ruin at the Antiquities Department of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Mineral Collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. Upcoming is his solo exhibition, The Sea, at the Schildt Foundation and Pro Artibus in Tammisaari, Finland. This summer his work will be included in group exhibitions at Human Resources in Los Angeles and at St. Paul St. Gallery at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and in KINGDOM – flora, fauna, fable at the Reykjavik Art Museum. Bjarki is the chairman of the Reykjavik School of Visual Arts, a member of the European Cultural Parliament and a periodic lecturer at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and other institutions.
Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir & Mark Wilson are resident in Iceland and the UK. They are a collaborative artist team, whose art practice is research based and socially-engaged, exploring issues of history, culture and environment in relation to both humans and non-human animals. Their artworks have been exhibited internationally and they have delivered papers on art and animal studies worldwide. They are currently working with Anchorage Museum, Alaska on a two year research project, and they are part of a cross disciplinary research into ‘plant blindness’ funded by the Swedish Science Council. Mark is a Professor at the University of Cumbria and Bryndís is a Visiting Professor at Malmö Art Academy and the Icelandic Academy of the Arts.
Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2003. Birgisdóttir has shown her works at the Reykjavík Art Museum, ANNAELLEGALLERY, i8 Gallery, Kling and Bang, Hverfisgallerí, The Living Art Museum among others. Being part of Ragnar Kjartansson and Friends, she recently participated in the project at TBA21 in Vienna as well as at PS1, New York. She has been granted Artist endowment from the Icelandic Ministry for Arts and Culture and the Benediktson fellowship grant for special residents at the Banff centre Canada. Birgisdóttir has been a board member of the Living Art Museum, KÍM and SÍM and served as the director of Skaftfell Cultural Centre.
Pilvi Takala lives and works in Helsinki and Istanbul. Takala received an MFA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and was artist-in-residence at Rijksakademie. Her solo exhibitions include Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; Site Gallery, Sheffield; Künstlerhaus Bremen; Kunsthalle Erfurt; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Turku Art Museum; Kunsthalle Lissabon; and Sorlandets Kunstmuseum, Norway. Her work has been shown in MoMA PS1 and New Museum, New York; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; S.M.A.K., Ghent; Kunsthalle Basel; De Hallen Haarlem; Wiels, Brussels; 4th Moscow Biennial.
(Featured image: Pilvi Takala, The Real Snow White 2009)