Sunday May 15th at 2 p.m., Tinna Gunnarsdóttir will give an artist talk on her work and her exhibition Touching Landscape – 66°05’35.2″N 18°49’34.1″W, now on view in Hafnarborg’s main gallery.
The exhibition places emphasis on Icelandic landscapes, with the aim of reflecting on and re-evaluating the relationship that humans have with the earth. The Anthropocene is a proposed term for the current geological epoch, defined by human impact on the planet, which has become so significant that it can be construed as a geological force. The fallout includes global warming, ocean acidification, the sixth mass extinction event and so on. Urgent action must be taken to combat this vast issue on all fronts, employing all means and methods, ranging from the sciences to the arts, the personal and the communal. In the matters of sustainable development, we require a wide range of solutions, rather than looking for a single answer.
Touching Landscape is the working title of Tinna Gunnarsdóttir’s ongoing doctoral research project, which focuses on the aesthetic experience of landscape as a force for positive change. The terms landscape and aesthetics are, however, far wider and more comprehensive than they may appear at first. Not only do they deal with appearances, but they also deal with the way we come into contact with the world, when man and landscape meet and shape each other. The cornerstone of the research project is a case study, conducted in Héðinsfjörður, at the northernmost point of Tröllaskagi, where Tinna applies a range of design methods to bring different matters into contact with one another, paying special attention to the resulting relationships.
Tinna Gunnarsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1968. She studied design in England, Germany and Italy and has been running her design studio in Reykjavík since 1993. Her work has been widely exhibited, both in Iceland and abroad. Currently she is a professor at the Iceland University of the Arts. Through everyday objects and design research, Tinna reflects on the environment, whether it be domestic or natural. She puts material and technology into unexpected circumstances generating a different perspective, an expanded experience, a twisted context. Her life-long immersion in Icelandic landscapes contributes to her understanding of spatial awareness, formally expressed through material objects.
The curator of the exhibition is Aldís Arnardóttir.
The exhibition is a part of DesignMarch 2022.
