I wandered around the lavafield Gálgahraun today as the Wandering Spinster. It was a windy day with a few snowflakes reaching the south-west corner of Iceland where Gálgahraun is situated. The days spent in the field have been beautiful in some sense but very wearing to, devastating actually. When trying to protect the lavafield from the bulldozers with other demonstrators we were arrested and put in solitary confinement for half a day. It didn't brake us completely. Some people among us who have been demonstrating mostly in the written for more than a decade to stop the building of the road are completely devastated and feel they can not step into the lavafield any more. Most of the people are in good spirits in spite of the sad days in the resent weeks.
You can read a bit about this event here If it doesn't kill you it strengthens you, as the saying goes, and I think I will survive to make a few more Wandering Spinsters. You can watch the latest short movie if you care to. A lot of thanks to the cameraman, Kári,that I grabbed in the lava, it was too windy to let the tripod stand on it's own!
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My blog should be about the art I am creating and the reasons for creating. I have not had the time to write for a few weeks, actually more than a month as there were bad news: a road that has been planned by the municipality of Garðabær ( Gardabaer, Iceland) and been highly criticized for twenty years by a number of people concerned about the environment, the cost of the road and the reason for it, was started with bulldozers in September. I got involved in the demonstrations and ended up being arrested twice on October 21st, detained in solitary confinement and interrogated by the police.
Demonstrations in the open are usually the last straw, not the first, in cases like this. Unfortunately many people think it is the beginning of criticizing something, but it is only the visible part of it. There is a high heap of written facts, figures and critic that have preceded this action. The demand is that developments be put on hold until the Supreme court has ruled whether they are indeed legal. If you are interested in the case you can look at news in English from Iceland here, here, here, here and here I also want to point out an interesting thing: the arrests on Monday October 21st was the biggest police action in Iceland for decades! And it was because of an illegal road being built for the municipality of Garðabær and backed up by the government of Iceland. 20 demonstrators and 50 police officers! My creation in the loom is environmentally friendly as far as I am capable to make it. The rags are the concept of: waste of material, time, money and land. I made this piece in honour of the Icelandic Goat Race that is an endangered species, to remind the watcher of the worst possible that could happen: extinct. I think it would be terrible if the Icelandic farming societies can't take the responsibility for the goats.
They keep talking about the horse that is so sacred as it has not been mixed with other races since the 9th century, they talk about the sheep ( slightly mixed with other breeds), the hens and dogs that are for sure mixed with other breeds, the cows that are a lovely breed since the 9th century. They are interested in importing foreign new breeds: angora rabbits, mink, hens, etc. but the thought of taking care of what is here already, the goats seems to be beyond their thinking. They are Búnaðarsamband Íslands or Farmers association of Iceland The second exhibition I took part in this year is over now. I dismounted my piece of art in the rain today, it was also mounted in the rain in May this year. Been a rainy summer in Iceland and the Warp of Fate is bleak, sad and not looking well as is the future for us here on this island Iceland, because that is what the Warp of Fate tells us.
The witches, fortune tellers and other mystical figures of the past, were they not just artists, conceptual and political artists as we call some of them today? I took part in the agricultural fair in Skagafjörður, N-Iceland last Saturday. I represented the goats of Iceland that are an endangered species, very much so. Only about 850 left. You can see more about these precious goats on my goat site. I hastily made a poster to stress the fact, and if you care to you can print it out and hang it up where the public can lay eyes on it. One in English and the other one in Icelandic. Feel free to use it. It is also a whole lot of thinking, pondering etc. I have a kind of clear idea of what I want to make. Then I have to dig into the material that I have got a and start looking at it and organize, un-organize and cut more rags.
The balls of rags are a beau too. As for this week I will not be pondering in the loom but rather tell people about the wonders of the Icelandic Goat race on a farmers fair in northern Iceland. The goat race in an endangered species and only counts 850 animals and there is a lot of inbreed as you might understand. You can see more about outdoor spinning on my website here
I was spinning goat hair on the market square in Kristinestad, Finland when the newpaper man came by.
On the morning of June 20th I and my friend Eva Wickoholm-Ekman went to this hill Kittelberget, in Svartå / Mustio, Southern Finland. The previous day it had been sunny and we had hoped it would prevail but alas, no. The hill isn't very tall I don't know how tall. perhaps 60 m, but it is one of the higher ones around there.
The original plan had been to go to Bytesberget, which name is related to Bötombergen that I span on in Kristinesta. These name indicate a sacred place for worship or celebration. But Eva suggested this one instead. At the base of the hill there are some kettles, kittlar in Swedish, remains from the end of the Ice age that ended around 10000 years ago, when the glaciers melted and there was water running on the rocks turning stones that ground the kettles or holes in the bedrock. It wasn't an easy spin. It rained and drizzled and I was wet and the goat hair that I was spinning was damp. But I still managed to spin some thread. Eva did her part of the excursion and photographed the deed. Another friend of mine, Teija Seppä lent me her spinning wheel that originated from her grandmother. Thanks to good friends I can continue praising the good things of the past, present and future and nature itself. It has been quite a spring and summer.
Full of spinning. I was traveling in Finland amongst other places I visited the town where my Finnish grandmother grew up in, Kristinestad. It is now Finland's only Citta-Slow town. I span on the drop spindle on market square of Kristinestad during their knitting day June 8th. I totally forgot to photograph the event and am hoping to receive some pics sooner or later. I also borrowed a spinning wheel, a traditional Finnish one from Hemslöjdsgården (handicraft place) in Kristinestad and went spinning on Bötombergen that is a hill that has remains of old cultures that seemed to use the place for worship or celebration. Now there is a ski lift operating in the winter. As Österbotten / Pohjanmaa is a flat area actually a former sea bed the Bötomberg hill is the highest peak by far with its 129 m. Bötombergen are called Pyhävuroi in Finnish meaning sacred hill. I also span on the Kvarnberget, in English Millhill, in Finnish Myllyvuori. There is a pretty old mill on the hill and I found the rotating spinning wheel going well with the rotating wings of the mill, even if the mill wings are stationary today. My spinning was praise of the past, the nature and for a better future. I have two pieces of art work on display outside this summer. Both are affected by forces of nature.
The one in the exhibition "Under the clear sky" in Reykjavik is affected by the weather. The one in Finland is affected by the weather in the sense that it has been warm with occasional rainfall and the vegetation is growing real fast. If you look at my earlier post about exhibitions this summer you can see images of the two works looking different at earlier stage. The warp of fate has been torn apart by the rain and the storm in Reykjavik a couple of days ago. Can we affect fate? And the question also is should I affect fate by going to Urðastígur and replace the threads in the warp? What do you think? The great "Last goat of Iceland" in "Muu maa" at Haihatus, Joutsa in Finland is affected by the growth of plants in the meadow it is lying on. If the grass and flowering plants are left unattended they might suffocate the goat and it will disappear. This great goat represents the Icelandic goat race that is about 850 goats now and is and endangered species. |
AuthorAnna María Lind, MA Textile Art Winchester School of Art. Archives
March 2024
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