August 2020 Vol. 1, No.4
Erla Thórarinsdottir’s Majestic Forms of Endlessness
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
200 x 110 cm
It’s cold and windy in Iceland. When the fierce wind blows boldly down from Greenland over the Denmark Strait, the people hunker down inside and center their activities at home. Iceland is a literary society going way back to the sagas of the 12th Century and the Old Norse. The visual artist Erla Thórarinsdottir was born in the capital Reykjavik. A Scandinavian through and through, she grew up in Iceland, Denmark and Sweden. She acknowledges, “Icelandic culture is literary, and not as much visual. When I went to Denmark and Sweden I learned that language is not reliable. I used my eyes to understand.” Nonetheless, she seems to have mastered linguistics as she speaks five languages fluently, including English on a high intellectual level.
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
180 x 80 cm each
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
180 x 80 cm
Tempera and sheets of silver on canvas
200 x 100 cm
Thórarinsdottir is an internationally renowned artist who creates stunning Dionysian forms and sculptural shapes, 2-D and 3-D, in a “sacred space” by “looking inside her own sensibilities.” Even her two-dimensional paintings carry a visual illusion of three-dimensionality. She studied at Konstfack in Stockholm and Gerrit Rietveld Akademie in Amsterdam and has worked and exhibited in Scandinavia, North Europe, USA, China and India.
Oxidations at Hafnarborg Museum 2013
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
200 x 130 cm and 200 x 90 cm
The artist is pushed by an inner urge that compels her to release the imagery that “just comes out” in whatever expression she needs, be it painting, meditation, photography, textile design, stone works and installations. The results are spontaneous and emotional expressions, impressive in their seemingly understated simplicity of shape and form. She avoids the complex. No pretentiousness. No banalities. Her work is approachable, contemplative and somehow transformative to the viewer, yet powerfully deep. It exudes beauty and aesthetics and is best viewed by the heart over the mind.
Oil color on canvas
150 x 150 cm
Thórarinsdottir explained, “I am essentially primitive and bring forth bodily shapes. Painting is physical. It is an act directly from the body to the shape to create a new physical body.” As she releases these inner feelings from her body, she sometimes uses her own body to press against the surface. While entirely different stylistically, Georgia O’Keefe comes to mind as both artists play with a hint of movement, sensuality, even eroticism.
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
180 x 80 cm
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
200 x 130 cm
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
190 x 110cm
From left to right: West – East/ Reykjavik – Istanbul, East to West/ Reykjavik – Washington, Path
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
200 x 130 cm each
Her work is dimensionally large, bold and instantly appealing, grand and magnificent. There is a purity, a form of freedom and confidence in her work. You can feel the honesty. “I want my art to be accessible. Something that belongs to everybody.” She impresses with size and scale. The textures of her oxidation series, for example, are subtle, like ripples on a lake or morning dew on a leaf, evoking a permanence of peace, a form of timelessness, as if it had always existed. With these paintings, she used sheets of silver, building light sensitive bodies and structures which exposed to light and time and whatever is in the air, oxidize and transmute on site. Sometimes experimentation brings surprises. The silver turned golden when an adhesive changed the oxidation process. Working in China, she was impressed with the fake money the Chinese use in a ritual to respect their deceased ancestors. In a culture where she did not understand the language, she again turned to the visual to express her innermost sensibilities by illustrating the paper money.
Water color and acrylics on paper with silver
30 x 30 each
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
150 x 200 cm
Her perpetual dance with shape and form is the core of her expression. She describes her process as “bringing out shapes that all of us have inside of us.” One profound example is the painting “Shell/shelter.” She was by her dying father’s bedside and she visualized a shape that haunted her for 20 years thereafter. In 2016, she was finally able to get it out. It was a shape she experienced, something that appeared and was there already, until she was ready to release it. The result is profound. The viewer will not know the story behind the art, but will be compelled to experience their own reaction. The artist said, “The endlessness appears in different ways.”
“Art is an expression of humanity. It is the highlight of being human. We are gifted with art.”
On site at Islandsbanki/The Bank of Iceland
The artist understands the interconnectivity of sounds and visual energy. Art, like music, carries tones, vibes and rhythms for those capable of experiencing the phenomena. The artist who is in tune with that sees their art come to life multi-dimensionally. Thórarinsdottir explained, “At a certain point in the process I feel my art making sounds, then the synchronicity of sound and sight emerges.”
When the tones resonate, Erla Thórarinsdottir’s art speaks the truth.
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
200 x 120 cm
Oil color and sheets of silver on canvas
190 x 80 cm
Frank Matheis, Writer
Frank Matheis is a music, arts and culture writer and a contributing writer to the Inspiration Art Group International. His latest project was the book ‘Sweet Bitter Blues’ co-written with National Heritage Fellow Phil Wiggins (University Press of Mississippi, 2020). His column ‘In Other Words’ features member artists in all disciplines and general arts essays. He is also a contributing writer to Living Blues magazine (Center for Southern Culture Studies) and the publisher/editor of thecountryblues.com. Frank was formerly an award-winning radio and music producer whose radio documentaries were heard on three continents in two languages. He is also a published photographer, curator and video producer.