Eva is a multimedia artist and tattooer interested in video, experimental animation, printmaking and fiber art. She was using her residency time at Stöðvarfjörður to explore animation and film techniques. Thematically the work is developing alongside research in Icelandic folklore. Eva is interested in the way cultural beliefs in magical animals can lend itself to biodiversity conservation.
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Dario Zeo is an artist from Switzerland. He stayed at Fish Factory for one month in November 2019. Dario came to Iceland in order to expose himself and his work to an unknown situation. Mainly working in the field of conceptual and language-based art, he concentrates on the process of doing art, which he sees as one single action, constantly shifting, overwriting its rules and including new inputs. A dynamic and process-oriented approach is important for him while working with text as material, simply because text reflects context. Dario understands artistic writing as a re-production in the sense of re-composing and re-contextualizing material. He tries to avoid the production of precious – based on exclusivity and authenticity – art by prioritizing conceptual gesture over product. In Stöðvarfjörður Dario started a new project which includes transferring text snippets from an essay by typewriter.
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Mercedes Villalba is a researcher and writer from Argentina. She studied Anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Buenos Aires and at The New School for Social Research in New York. Now she is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis, where she researches the commodification of geothermal landscapes. She has published articles, poems, and essays in Spanish and English. Some of those have appeared in The Plant, Les Chroniques Purple, Compost, Correspondencia, Papersky and Eco-colo. She makes zines and small-run prints every once in a while. She was also part of the art and research duo Mejunje, the research group PROTO, and the MycologyMSA collective.
Her ‘Fervent Manifesto’ was translated to Spanish and Portuguese and published by Calipso Press and by No Libros respectively in 2019. Some of her articles have also been translated to Japanese. Her only children’s book so far, “No muy lejos” was published by Periplo in 2014. She currently teaches at the University of California, Davis.
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Nick Rasmussen is a visual artist and wedding photographer from the United States, and is currently based in the state of Indiana. Nick studied at the Fish Factory – Creative Centre of Stöðvarfjöður for one month in November 2019, creating photographs and compiling time-lapses of the landscapes there to use as part of a larger, ongoing study of mankind’s connection to nature. During his time at the Fish Factory, Nick spent his days and nights capturing images and videos, using whatever light source he could find. His work portrays a dream-like sensation he believes is experienced most often in striking, desolate spaces like Iceland, which is shown through minimalistic photos with a combination of landscapes, architecture, light, and occasionally, humans. Nick has been to Iceland twice before, and was drawn back as a result of this dream-like sensation he experienced at his first residency last November in Iceland, and the peacefulness that comes with winter here. In Stöðvarfjöður, he is currently working on creating a second book of fine-art images about the relationship between various spaces and elements, a short-film about nature and technology, and a video installation about virtually experiencing nature and the negative effects that come with that.
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Christine Dewancker is an artist from Canada currently living in Toronto, Ontario. Christine was at the Fish Factory for one month in November. Her work is site-specific, responding to the ecological, historical and social conditions that inform and produce a place. She was inspired by the vastness of the landscape here and what made a resounding impression on her was the way the sense of scale and perspective are affected by this landscape. She went on many bike rides exploring the surrounding area and was overwhelmed by the strong impression of interconnectedness yet insignificance she felt being in close proximity to the mountains and ocean.
The other aspect of Christine’s time here that made a big impression on her was how quickly and drastically the weather could change within a day or even the span of an hour. She was drawn to how these changes could be reflected in the surface patterns of the water along the shoreline. Being surrounded by water, this element of the landscape shapes life here in many ways. The videos are an impression of time and place through the element of water. They offer a very small and in a way abstracted section of the ocean and the movements of a system (weather patterns, local conditions) that she encountered throughout her time here.
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Sibylle Nagel came from Austria, the land without the sea. Sibylle wanted to get to know to the sea. She collected sea wheat, stones and different items that sea had taken to the shore. Sibylle visited the sea during sunny, rainy and wintery October days, here in Stöðvarfjörður. She was watching the sea and listening, what the sea was telling her. In the end ´What the sea told her´ became the name of her portfolio.
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Gabriela Monnerat and Rodrigo Amim – aka ONZE – came to the Fish Factory to be inspired by Icelandic nature and culture. They also took advantage of this distance from their homes to reflect on the conservative wave that spread recently over Brazil, as well as many other countries. Using mixed media – sculpture, drawing, painting, filming, literature – they conceived a new project. In collaboration with the other residents, they left Störðvarfjörður with the skeleton of an animated short. The audiovisual embryo of a future multimedia installation.
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Kathryn Maguire is an Installation Artist based in Dublin, Ireland. Kathryn came to the Fish Factory for a residency for the month of October 2019. She spent her time here exploring the remote landscapes of the East Fjords researching geological phenomenon. Her findings shall inform solo shows in 20/21 investigating The Physical World and Materials. She tested strange goings-on within the Earths Crust aided by Icelands leading Geologists and fabricated and floated geometric casts in the icy seas near the residency.
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Tobias Carroll is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. He came to the Fish Factory for a residency in October 2019. For most of his time there, he worked on a short nonfiction book about political signs for the Object Lessons series. He also worked on a surreal novel set in a mysterious city. Carroll welcomed the relative isolation and the creative community here and is pretty certain that the landscape of Stöðvarfjörður is going to work its way into several future projects.
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Razielle Aigen is an artist and a poet from Montreal, Canada. She came to spent the month of October to the Fish Factory – Creative Centre of Stöðvarfjörður, so she could focus on her writing projects. During her residency time, Razielle was working on poetry and making creative research on eco-poetics. She enjoyed her walks surrounded by beautiful nature and seasonal changes in the area. While Razielle´s visit she saw, how autumn colours turned into the snowfall, and northern lights appeared to the sky with the first frosty nights.
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Santiago Martinez Peral is a visual artist from Spain living in Madrid. Santiago spent the month of September here in the Fish Factory artist residency, and it was his first residency experience outside of Spain. During his residency time, Santiago painted several works with acrylics, combining it with crayon details. It was a pleasure for other artists to follow his process of finding movement and stories from the characters and animals, which appeared to his canvas. Symbolism, sensuality, irony, hybridisation and expressionism are topics frequently featured in his artwork.
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Raquel Mora Bajo is an artist from Spain, who came to Fish Factory´s art residency in the month of September. Raquel started her day´s by walking to the local waterfall and back to the Studio, where she used to write and listen to a jazz concert while enjoying her morning coffee. Walks in nature got her inspired of thinking, what kind of little creatures and micro-organisms there was living inside of the turf. Soon these biological creatures appeared on paper as detailed drawings. During Raquel´s residency time she worked with pencils, clay and watercolour.
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Aki Sung is a visual artist from Hong-Kong, and she spent the month of September here at the Fish Factory art residency. At home, she works with print-making focused on etching, illustrations and drawings. Aki wanted to find inspiration from Iceland, do a new series of work, and relax after all the things happening in Hong-Kong at the moment. During her residency month, Aki made several drawings with her unique and precise style of drawing. In the illustrations she created during her residency time, she got a lot of inspiration from nature, which she saw as a metaphor for peace.
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Nola Boyle is an artist from the USA living in Philadelphia. She spent the months of August and September here in East-Iceland. During her residency time, Nola was preparing her upcoming portfolio. She was working with clay and experimenting with sticks and stones. Nola produced 36 cups made from clay, and she placed these cups in weird situations and documented them by photographing and video. Some of the mugs got broken, and some of them turn out to be shoes. She also made research dipping rocks to paint and then on paper.
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Ella Webb is an illustrator based in the United Kingdom, who spent the month of September here in the Fish Factory artist residency. She came to work on a new series of work, for her upcoming show in Japan in October and November 2019. Ella created drawings, designed prints and worked with loom and cross-stitching. Most of her artwork is based on geological observation from the surrounding area, so Iceland fitted better than fine for this kind of exploration. Ella got known as a fast walker, and she hiked a lot during her stay in the village of Stöðvarfjörður. From every walk, she collected stone, and at the end of her residency time, she got a quite of a collection.
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Talita Zaragoza is a Brazilian artist, living in New York, USA. She spent the month of September here in the East-Iceland. During her residency stay, she hiked around the mountains of Stöðvarfjörður, rested and enjoyed the Private Studio she was working in. At the Studio Talita was working with paper, writing and bigger scale paintings. Her artwork got inspired by nature, and all the shapes and the colours are from the surrounding areas. Talita was collecting information during her adventures by photographing around the fjord and then transformed that knowledge into her imaginary map-paintings.
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Daniel van Benthuysen is a visual artist from Long Island, New York, and he joined us here at the Fish Factory art residency for the month of September. During his residency month, he painted with watercolours to a variety of different types of paper he brought with him from the USA, where he usually works with oil painting. Daniel explored the village and it´s surroundings on foot and caught moments with his camera. He followed, how the local population lived in harmony with the landscape and captured it, with the light touching the scenery and architecture.
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Taylor Raye Erickson is a visual artist from America, living in Pittsburg. She spent the month of August here at the Fish Factory artist residency. During her residency time, Taylor made a collection of small works mainly using acrylic paint on Yupo-paper. In her works, she explored dreams and memories. Taylors art searches our environment, and how it affects us and contrariwise. In her artwork, she tries to capture the feeling of the space, more than the technical elements of the space. Borders are a bit blurry but always connected. Icelandic landscapes had their own influence on Taylor. She experienced that the sceneries in East-fjords were dramatic with the constantly changing weather, so it actually felted like a dream.
//More of Taylors’ work//
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Thank you, Taylor!
Eric Neunteufel is an artist from Austria, who came to Fish Factory art residency in August 2019 with his wife Angelika Kreilinger. Back home in Austria, they own their own graphic studio called Graphik Werkstatt, Neunteufel Kreilinger. Beginning of Eric´s residency he found a funny picture from the Factory. Picture from local bus drivers from the 1970s. He painted portrait studies from the people in the picture using watercolour. During Eric´s stay, he did multiple artworks using a traditional print working method, etching. He was making the drawings outside among nature into the iron plates and finished his work in indoors. In traditional etching, a metal plate, usually made from copper, zinc or steel, is coated with a waxy acid-resistant substance upon which the artist draws his design with a metal needle an then the plate is then immersed in acid. In Eric´s video, he demonstrates to us, how the process of etching works!
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Thank you, Eric!
Angelika Kreilinger came from Austria to visit Stöðvarfjörður with her husband Eric Neunteufel. Together with Eric, they own a graphic studio called Graphik Werkstatt, Neunteufel Kreilinger back in Austria. They spent the month of August here at the Fish Factory artist residency. Angelika enjoyed long walks in nature, taking pictures in the village, watching birds, flora and the endless amount of grass she saw in the East-fjords hills and mountains. During Angelika´s residency time she made detailed drawings with pastels.
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Thank you, Angelika!
Sunny Stanila is an artist and experimental animation filmmaker living in Montreal, Canada. It was her first visit to Iceland and she spent the month of August here at the Fish Factory. Research played a big part of Sunny´s work, and it focused on non-linear abstract narrative experimental hand-drawn animation. She explores changeability and physicality of the materials and their manifestations into motion. Sunny is interested in using unpredictable materials like ink and watercolours. Her artwork unites colours, textures, motion and rhythm. In Sunny´s recent film, Desire on the Surface of the Skin, she used ink on paper. During her residency stay, she wanted to explore more of this kind of technique but mixing it with watercolours, pencil and dry pastels. Sunny creates both, image and a sound. Currently, she is working on a new film, and she used Studio Silo´s space to complete part´s of the recordings.
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Thank you, Sunny!
Eimear Kavanagh is a visual artist living in England, who spent the month of August here at the Fish Factory artist residency. She came to Stöðvarfjörður to find a peaceful environment so she could dedicate to her art project. Eimear and her sister are making a book of poetry for which she creates illustrations. Together the stories are about the connection with nature and finding the answers from there. During her residency time, she was gathering information on landscape and nature that surrounded her. She created multiple art pieces and beautiful ideas, that she will develop more when she gets back home. Eimear described her stay in the residency as a timeless experience. A big part of the experience was that she didn´t have a phone for the whole month. When Eimear wasn’t working in our Shared Studio or drafting outside she enjoyed picking local berries and mushrooms, what nature offered during this summer month. She got loads of inspiration from the museum called Petra´s stone collection. Eimear spent quality time with herself in Petra´s café, where she got high from a strong cup of coffee and crystals around her.
//More of Eimear´s work//
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Thank you, Eimear!
Maija fox is a British visual artist who spent summer months June and July here at the Fish Factory – art residency. Maija’s work aims to address conscious observations to the places/spaces that she finds herself in. She works in mediums that become apparent through the process of being in the world; crafting site-specific companions; sculptural objects and devices, that encourage the act of paying attention to what’s happening when it’s happening; in this case, responding specifically to the experience and landscape of Stöðvarfjörður East Iceland. Here at the Fish Factory Maija has built a wind-powered device (a similar machoism to a pottery wheel, but the motion powered by the input of the wind). This interactive object creates an interface encouraging communication and engagement between Maija and the wind.
The sculpture was created with the intention to collaborate with the distinctive elements of this landscape, the interest and inspiration that came from the dynamic movement and unique forms that are so apparent in this landscape. The physical process of being in and spending time in the landscape, with the device enabled a deeper understanding and recognition of the perspective of the environment. The importance of ecological thinking and perception of all-encompassing equality in relation to all existence, the device, the wind, a mountain or another being. The work becoming a ritual occasion forcing a deeper understanding and awareness to the immediate environment. A focus on becoming more aligned to the present; in the present with the help of the elements that are already existing, with the aim to create a shared dialogue and narrative through the making of clay forms together. The device is active/live, it travels, deconstructs, the forming/device adapts fluidly as an automatic reaction to the power and movement of the wind.
Maija’s understanding and relationship with the elements are developed through the process of making, journeying, data collection and the activation of the sculpture/ device by her being present in the landscape. A big thank you to the Winds in and around Stöðvarfjörður for making this project happen, for teaching me about the shaping and motion of this landscape, and to the fish factory for the supporting of this project and donating recycled material for the construction of the device. Maija’s project funded by STEP European Cultural Foundation Labs, The Student Project Fund – Glasgow School of Art and The Mason Trust
//More of Maija´s work//
instagram.com/maijajadefox
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Thank you, Maija!
