Sybil Paulson // May 2018.

Sybil Paulson is a nomad artist, who joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of May 2018. She was born in Canada and has been more or less on the road ever since she turned 14. As her lifestyle also Sybil’s art is an organically swirling process and she moves smoothly from a medium to another. She is mostly based in drawing but also takes photographs, makes paintings and performative acts for a camera.

Coming to a residency in Iceland was an important cyclical finish for Sybil, as she was living in Iceland four years earlier trying to study art, but back then decided to do something else. Now that phase of doing something else has come to a sort of an end, and she will start at an art school later this year.

This is how Sybil writes about her art and process:

Sybil Paulson has learned many things. Some of them are about the wilderness, others about women and men. Very little about birds despite the time spent watching them.

She is Canadian and American. Sybil attended competitive ice hockey schools throughout her formative years and once shed a tear while flying over the state of Louisiana (following the last election) which unfolded on a motel television in Cuba, reported by an anchor wearing an eye patch and a fine suit. She has a strong love for the endless states of Mississippi and Lousiana.

A couple of artworks Sybil created while in the residency. // Photographs by Sybil Paulson May 2018.

//More of Sybil’s Work//

http://sybilpaulson.portfoliobox.net/

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Sybil!

Melissa McGrath // April 2018.

Melissa McGrath is a visual artist and educator from Kansas City, Missouri, The United States. She joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of April 2018 to focus on her drawing practice.

Melissa makes drawings by burning holes to the paper with a smoldering incense stick. The method of drawing this way is an irreversible process and the drawings are usually dealing with the transformation and the ways people move through traumas. The drawings and the meditative process of making them is her way to depict traumas, both the ones we have as individuals and those of different communities. The process of drawing with a smoldering incense stick is very laborious practice and for Melissa, also this tedious labor is an important part of the artwork itself.

While in the residency, Melissa started working on the biggest drawing she has made so far. The paper being bigger than the artist has special meaning to her and is fitting as the things she is going through at the moment are also bigger than her. Melissa spent countless hours working on the drawing and was particularly interested in feeling the effects of the physical labor in her body as she spent the working hours making the drawing on various positions from being on tiptoes to lying on the ground.

The piece Melissa created while in the residency // April 2018.

 

//More of Melissa’s Work//

www.melissamcgrath.work

https://www.instagram.com/starwitness_

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Melissa!

Jerry Jacuzio // April 2018.

Jerry Jacuzio is an artist and musician from the United States, who joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of April 2018. Jerry came to the residency to continue to make his magical felted hats and fish masks.

Jerry considers himself as a maker of things and art as a means of magic. For him, art doesn’t come from the logical side of the brain, but from somewhere more mystical and unexplainable side of his being. Initially, Jerry started making the felted hats with twigs and bones as a help for people who had lost their hair, and their magic, during the cancer treatments. This was how he had felt too.

Masks, instead, come from a different place. Jerry got tired of the changes happening in the music venues and saw that the only possible place to continue playing was on the streets. But, he needed to have a mask on to blur the identity of the musician, as a shield, so he started making the mystical masks with angelic writing and other symbols. Jerry is excited planning on a future performance to play music in a fish market in Asia wearing the fish masks he created during the residency.

Some work Jerry completed while in the residency in April 2018.

//More of Jerry’s Work//

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Jerry!

Silvija Juozelskyte // April 2018.

Silvija Juozelskyte is a textile designer and art therapist from Lithuania, who joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of April 2018. For a Lithuanian, Iceland is an especially important country because it was the first country to recognize the independence of Lithuania back in 1991. And as an homage to that, Lithuanians have an annual festival in Vilnius called Takk Island / Thank you Iceland. The festival is also the reason why Silvija came to the residency to work on a new body of work that she is going to exhibit at the festival.

In general, Silvija’s work finds its inspiration from nature and she uses only natural materials such as linen and wool. In the residency, she was inspired by the Icelandic nature, especially the mountains and the sea. Being at the Fish Factory she was pondering on the history of the place and also, the similarities between the two countries and their fishing trades. Eventually, this led to her making artworks weaving the landscape of Stöðvafjörður on the found fishing net. During her time in the residency, Silvija was also doing a lot of hiking in the mountains and dedicating time to knit a pullover with traditional patterns using Icelandic wool. She was interested in photographing the ropes the fishermen left at the harbor – she saw them as interesting coincidental drawings.

Some artworks Silvija made while in the residency // Silvija Juozelskyte 2018.

//More of Silvija’s Work//

http://www.silvijart.com

Thank you, Silvija!

Natalie Goulet // April 2018.

Natalie Goulet is a Canadian photographer from Northern Ontario, who joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of April 2018. This was her third time in Iceland within a year, and this time she came to work on her ongoing photography projects in the landscapes of East Iceland.

Natalie’s photography work is revolving around the concepts of home, whether it’s a physical space or a sense of belonging somewhere. Usually, she works taking photos of herself in different types of settings in abandoned, forgotten buildings or out in nature. The landscapes and the spaces become the extension of the inner landscapes of the artist. Also, as Natalie likes to work with the physical materiality of the images, she uses instant film and then modifies the images in irreversible ways, usually by burning them. Besides driving around the fjords and finding the perfect locations, this experimentation was what she was working on during her time in the residency.

Some of the photographs Natalie took around East Iceland while she in the residency in April 2018. // Natalie Goulet 2018.

//More of Natalie’s Work//

http://www.nataliemichelle.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/nataliemichelle.ca/

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Natalie!

Valentin Russo // February – April 2018.

Valentin Russo is a French photographer who joined us here at the Fish Factory for three months from February to April 2018. Valentin came to Stöðvarfjörður to make an extended photography project about the hidden and not overly photographed sides of Iceland.

 

The final piece of the three-month-long project was a photography book called While You Are Sleeping. The title of the book came from a local who considers the village being a sleeping town. Valentin found his inspiration in that and thinks that the nights in here are not solely dedicated to sleep.

So while in the residency, Valentin was mostly walking around the village and taking photos of the activities happening in the night time. He was especially interested in playing with flashlights and an infrared camera during the dark hours of the night. He wanted to disclose the things hiding in the darkness, blur the line between the real and imaginary.

 

Photographs from the series Valentin was working on in the residency // Valentin Russo 2018.

 

//More of Valentin’s Work//

http://www.vrusso.com

https://www.instagram.com/valentinrss

 Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Valentin!

Rebeca Bonjour // March 2018.

Rebeca Bonjour is a photographer from Lisbon, Portugal who joined us here at the Fish Factory for March 2018. Rebeca has studied both, journalism and photography and although most of her work being photographs, also the background in journalism has a big influence on her ways of working. She tends to do pervasive research about the topics she’s working with, and likes to work with people interviewing and photographing them.

In general, Rebeca works with identity related issues. She is interested in making photographic series about the identities of different places, of groups of people or individuals. Rebeca came to Iceland to make a project about the hidden people of Icelandic folklore. She did a lot of research on the stories and myths before coming to the country. And before coming to finish the project at the Fish Factory, she visited the elf town Hafnarfjörður and even attended the elf school for a day.

Photographs from Rebeca’s project, taken in Stöðvarfjörður and Hafnarfjörður. // March 2018.

 

//More of Rebeca’s Work//

https://littlewandereradventures.wordpress.com/

https://www.instagram.com/madambonjour/

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Rebeca!

Rose Hatcher // March 2018.

Rose Hatcher is an artist, a photographer and a curator from Cornwall, England. She joined us here at the Fish Factory for March of 2018 two projects in her mind – to focus on making her art works and to learn about the residency program we are running here. This is because, Rose is a founder and the manager of a similar project in Cornwall, called Fish Factory.

Initially, the two Fish Factories were connected when Rose found out about the Fish Factory in Iceland when looking for a domain name for her project. Rose and her team visited Iceland in 2016 and since then the projects have kept in contact. Now, Rose came to learn about the residency program as they are about to establish one in Cornwall as well. She was also enjoying the serene atmosphere in Stöðvarfjörður, and she spent the time in here reflecting the rapid improvements happening at the Factory in Cornwall and just recuperating from the busy months.

 

Rose Hatcher’s collage works and photographs made in the residency. // March 2018.

While in the residency, Rose was also happy to be able to make her own art works and experiment with different materials. During the time in here, she made many collage works on paper, took photos and used the dark room to develop some films.

 

//More of Rose’s Work//

http://www.rosehatcherphotography.co.uk/

http://rosehatcher.tumblr.com/

https://www.instagram.com/rassyhp/

And more about the Fish Factory Art Space:

http://www.fishfactoryarts.com/

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Rose!

Holly MacKinnon // March 2018.

Holly is an oil painter from Montreal, Canada, who joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of March 2018. Her work is mainly oil paintings on canvas and usually a combination of figures and landscapes. She spent the time in the residency working hard at the studio and making many paintings about the landscape and people.

The Icelandic landscapes, in fact, were Holly’s main motif for coming to the Fish Factory. It is beneficial for her as a landscape painter to be in a new environment and in a place with different visual imagery to what she is used to seeing at home. She was inspired and amazed by the wondrous mountains here in Stöðvarfjörður, and ended up making a lot of paintings about them. Also, Holly was interested in the night sky and was particularly pleased to experience the northern lights, and these too were incorporated to her work.

 

Holly MacKinnon’s oil paintings made in the residency. // March 2018.

//More of Holly’s Work//

https://www.hollymackinnon.com/

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Holly!

Jemila MacEwan // March 2018.

Jemila is an interdisciplinary artist who was born in Scotland, grew up in Australia and is currently living and working in New York city. She joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of March 2018 to work on a sculpture-based video performance piece. Jemila spent her time in the residency making large teeth/glacier sculptures out of paper mache and then filming a performance with her interacting with them.

Jemila’s work has been greatly affected by her upbringing in Australia, where scientific, mythological and spiritual ways of learning from the land are intertwined. She continues to draw connections between people and place; material and culture; spirituality and experience. Her work seeks out an empathetic approach to humanities destructive impulses, and recently she has focused on making art works as a way to understand what it is to be human in the age of the Holocene Extinction.

 

 

Photos of Jemila’s process of making the sculptures and shooting the performance. // March 2018.

 

//More of Jemila’s Work//

https://www.jemilamacewan.com/

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Jemila!

Owen Dixon // January – February 2018

Owen Dixon is a sculptor and a metal worker from Peterborough, Canada, who joined us here at the Fish Factory for January and February of 2018. Owen’s practice is making sculptures out of old, rusty metal objects by cutting holes in intricate patterns to the metal with a plasma cutter. Before studying Fine Arts and sculpting in NSCAD Halifax, Nova Scotia, Owen attended a welding school.

While in residency, he visited several recycling depots and walked along the harbour to collect abandoned rusty steel objects and turn them into artworks that deal with the questions of the past and layered histories of those objects. The cutting patterns also have historical references – most of them are made according to the designs by William Morris of the late 19th century Arts and Crafts Movement.

Photographs of Owen’s metal works and drawings. 2018.

Besides making his metal work, Owen spent the time in Stöðvarfjörður planning the future projects, making a variety of other artworks and engaging in interesting conversations with others at the Creative Centre.

//More of Owen’s Work//

www.instagram.com/burn_island

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Owen!

Sebastian Koukkides // February 2018

Sebastian Koukkides is a visual artist from Cyprus who joined us here at the Fish Factory Creative Centre for the month of February 2018. He received his BA in Fine Arts from the University of the West of England in Bristol.

Sebastian usually works with found materials joining them together in different and unusual ways. The artworks are average person sized and often accompanied with small phrases informing the work. His practice revolves around concepts and ideas that are mainly from philosophy.

During the time in Stöðvarfjörður, Sebastian explored and went through the mounds of recycled and salvaged materials we have here at the Creative Centre and made some experiments using those materials. Also, he took advantage of the serenity of the village to focus on making applications for future studies.

Artworks and photographs by Sebastian Koukkides.

//More of Sebastian’s Artwork//

www.sebastiankoukkides.com

Thank you, Sebastian!

Susan Wood // February 2018

Susan Wood is an artist from Scotland who joined us at the Fish Factory for the third time this February. She has a recurring project to spend a month in each of the four seasons in here at Stöðvarfjöður. At the end of her fourth visit, she will make an art project about all her visits and based on the experiences of different seasons in East Iceland.

This February was her winter visit and she spent the time walking around in nature, taking photos of the rapidly changing sky and making artworks inspired by the winter nature. She was especially interested in contrasting the darkness and lack of living beings of the winter with the opposite. While in the residency Susan made a body of work titled “Winter Flowers” exploring this contrast in a surreal manner. Her endless interest and the main material for her artworks is the seaweed she collects on her walks along the beach.

Susan’s notebook and photos of some of her sculptures // February 2018.

Also, as she uses a variety of different mediums, Susan spent time in here making some linoleum cuts, drawings and other sculptures with found objects.

 

//More of Susan’s Work//

Check out the interview here:

Thank you and see you again in Autumn time, Susan!

Julia DePinto is a visual artist from Ohio, United States and she stayed here at the Fish Factory for January 2018. Her background as an artist is in printmaking but she doesn’t consider herself as a traditional printmaker, and in fact, she is rather working against the stereotypes of the medium. Julia’s work has a heavy focus on the process of printmaking, she doesn’t work in editions, and materiality/immateriality and control/lack of control play important roles in her prints.

Most of her artworks and prints are photo-based and they stem from performances she makes for the camera. Her body and politics of female body are present in her works. She uses her body as a conduit for contextualizing social and political dialogue, autobiographical experiences, collective injustices, and the societal structures placed on women.

At Fish Factory Julia wanted to challenge herself and not work in a familiarity of a print shop. She worked on a series of digital photographs and drawings, made an installation to the Factory’s attic, and made her first performance with an audience.

Julia DePinto’s selected drawings and photos of her installation and performance work done while at the residency.

//More of Julia’s Artwork//

http://www.juliadepinto.com/

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Julia!

Hannah Bengtsson is an illustrator and a designer from Brisbane, Australia. She stayed here at the Fish Factory for six months from August 2017 to January 2018. Hannah studied in Billy Blue College of Design in Brisbane where she received a BA in Communication Design in 2016.

Since then she travelled to Quito, Ecuador to do design work for her brother’s brewery there and to complete a mural project. After the time in Ecuador Hannah spent months travelling around North America and Ireland before arriving in Iceland and Stöðvarfjörður.

After years of studying and doing design work, Hannah decided that she wanted to engage herself in a massive personal project in which her interests in illustration and writing stories would collide. She wanted to challenge herself and work on a project she could fully devote to. So she ended up working on her own book that is going to be a mix of a graphic novel and an illustrated book.

Hannah spent the time at Fish Factory working hard with her project. She was mostly developing and writing the story and making a lot of illustrations. During her long stay in here, she also worked with many side projects importance of which she talks about among many other interesting topics in the interview.

Selected illustrations for Hannah’s book and a side project embroidery work on a leather jacket.

//More of Hannah’s Artwork//

http://www.hbengtsson.com/

Check out the interview about her stay here:

Thank you, Hannah!

Keit is an artist from Estonia, who joined us here in the private studio for the month of November, to work on a personal music project; Meije. After some years of singing vocals in bands, it has been a different experience for Keit to have the time and space to focus fully on her personal work, of experimental soundscapes. ‘Dream-like, and ethereal, nature-inspired choir layers’. 

The pull to Iceland was initially based on the remote atmosphere of the Fish Factory, and the raw and dark outcome that may transfer into music. However, Keit  found some unexpected inspiration in the softer elements of the winter in Stöðvarfjörður, such as the pink and purple hues of sun rises, and sun sets; creating a lighter direction for the work.

//More of Keit’s Work//

https://meije.bandcamp.com

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Keit!

Selected Works from Casa Series // Alfredo Esparza, 2017

As part of this practice, Alfredo enjoyed communication with local people in the town, and explored deeper into the characteristics of the human connection to nature, and local culture in the East fjords.

Birgir // Alfredo Esparza, 2017

//More of Alfredo’s Work//

Check out the interview here:

Thank you & see you again, Alfredo!

Robert John is a freelance illustrator and designer from Toronto who joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of November, 2017. His work could be described as retro minimalism, and often finds itself in the combination of unlikely elements; incorporating bright colours and simple illustration to form a complex outcome.

More recently, it had become apparent that physical location didn’t play a huge role in ability or access to work, and so Iceland has been the second stop on a working trip around Europe. This time, giving room to experiment, to draw inspiration from experiences, and to meet other artists.

Previous Works // Robert John Paterson

With screen printing as his favoured medium, the factory provided an interesting setting, currently equipped for linoleum and wood block printing. This fed through into inspiration for an animated video project that Robert had been working on a month prior; the addition of hand printed elements, giving an authentic and crafted feel to the practice.

Animation Stills // Robert John Paterson, 2017

//More of Robert John’s Work//

http://www.robertjohnpaterson.com

Thank you, Robert John!

 

Adrian and Sue Hunter are artists and teachers from Australia, who joined us for the month of November, in 2017, to spend time focussing on their personal painting mediums, both involved with depiction of landscape, in varying formats. Their time at the fish factory was spent working on this practice, and experimenting with printing, of natural materials and textures, such as kelp, collected form the shore line.

After some time in China, Adrian began to use the square format in compositional studies of landscape as an interpretation of human emotion. Focussing on water in motion, light, and atmosphere. Adrian set a target for himself whilst here at the Fish Factory, to produce a daily composition of the landscape that he has encountered during his time exploring the nature of the fjord and surroundings.

Landscape Composition // Adrian Hunter, 2017

Alternatively, Sue’s practice is related more to the immediacy of experience and observation. Her work branches into the study of landscape in relation to culture, and how community adapts, resulting in experimental and reflective windows into personal experience, with nature and community.

Observational Works // Sue Hunter, 2017

//More of Adrian & Sue’s Work//

http://www.visualartist.info/adrianhunter

http://www.visualartist.info/suehunter

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Adrian & Sue!

 

Ben Frimet is an artist and teacher from London, England, who joined us for the month of October 2017. While here he was taken by the amount of tour packages available for visitors to Iceland. This felt quite manufactured when joined with the wild nature and landscape, and so provided a topic of interest for his stay at the Fish Factory.

Ben’s focus is often based around humorous response to social norms and behaviours, that when taken out of context, seem questionable and strange. With this considered, Ben’s work here in Stöðvarfjörður, became the construction of his own tour company, ‘þór’s tours’ that offered a new perspective on the wonders of Iceland. A history, through the eyes of a visitor.

 þór’s Tours // Ben Frimet, 2017

The first and possibly last ever þór’s Tour included;

– Introduction to Icelandic weather and how to change it’s state
– Stöðvarfjörður National Park
– Power of rocks and fire in east Iceland
– Farming and local disputes in Stöðvarfjörður
– Fertile soil and revolutionary sheep
– Iceland’s 4th and 5th smallest waterfalls
– primal screaming at Saxa

//More of Ben’s Artwork//

www.bfrimet.wix.com/ben-art 

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Ben!

Gabrielle Tam A.K.A. ‘Onion Peterman’ is an illustrator and print maker from Hong Kong, who has exhibited in solo and group shows in Hong Kong & Korea, and joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of October, 2017.

Gabrielle’s works are predominantly presented through screen printing & zine publishing, inspired by observations of the city, and surroundings.

Screen Prints // Onion Peterman, 2016

The boundaries of Gabrielle’s practice were expanded during residency in Stöðvarfjörður, as the Factory’s print making facilities are currently equipped for lino and wood block mediums. Experimentation with lino cutting translated well into the work style and texture. Creating beautiful representations of light, and significant features within the fjord. Each print became one of 5 editions, and the Factory, is now the lucky home to 3/5, of each print!

Lino Prints // Onion Peterman, 2017

Returning to Hong Kong, Gabrielle will take a work in progress, influenced by the masses of tourists standing in a circle around Iceland’s famous ‘Geysir’. After drawing the front and back of this crowd, the image will be further developed into a 3 metre, large scale screen print.

//More of Gabrielle’s Artwork//

www.onionpeterman.com

Check out the interview here:

Ann-Ci is an artist from Sweden who picked up painting around 10 years ago. It was a new found passion, which led her to meet with other artists, to learn drawing and painting techniques, and since then has exhibited her own work.

This year, Ann-Ci’s focus was towards a time of personal study and exploration. She had noticed that, for individuals who have attended art schools and colleges, there is a period of exploration, where the artist can  discover the boundaries of their process and work, more fully understanding who they are as an artist. For this reason, she joined us here in October.

Previous Works // Ann-Ci Lifmark

Ann-Ci arrived by ferry to Iceland, 14 days before her residency began; taking this time to experience the landscape and to draw inspiration from the nature. What she found, was unlike the Iceland she had expected, in the varied colour palette. This was really a definitive discovery in Ann-Ci’s working process, and she spent many hours walking, and observing, to build  up a new and documented colour palette for use in later works.

Fish Factory Work // Ann-Ci Lifmark

//More of Ann-Ci’s Artwork//

Check out the interview here:

Thank you, Ann-Ci!

Nidea is a Portuguese artist from Switzerland, who works as a stage and lighting designer, with a passion for creating in many forms, and personally focussing on writing in recent years. Residency here in Stöðvarfjörður, gave Nidea the time and space to focus on the theme of ‘identity’, as fuel for her first personal monologue, which greatly benefitted from time within the multi-cultural setting of the Fish Factory.

In exploring what we are made of, viewed through the filter of our past, experiences, families & origins, Nidea widened her perspectives of the ‘mechanisms of identity’, and through her writing, aims to express the person that ‘we all are’, regardless of our personal context. Defining what is common between us.

In this research, it became clear that there is no easy or finite way to express identity, and so the monologue became a conversation, in exploring psychological theories and their relation to daily stories and experiences. Overall, concluding that thinking too much about what is that defines us, is not allowing us to live in the moment.

“we have to re-invent, re-birth, every day”

//More of Nidea’s Artwork//

Check out the interview about her stay here:

Thank you, Nidea!

Martina is a performance artist and actress from Croatia, who has spent the last 8 years working nomadically, and is now based in Reykjavik. She joined us here at the Fish Factory for the month of September, 2017.

Last year, whilst working in Slovenia, Martina finished her first performance trilogy, which had been developed and stretched across three locations; The Netherlands, Croatia, and Slovenia. The three pieces within in the trilogy were focussed around consumerism, poverty, and capitalism. Her time in here in Stöðvarfjörður, was the beginning of her second trilogy, as a study of emotion, and radical emotion, which found it’s beginnings in social & online research during her residency.

//More of Martina’s Artwork//

Check out the interview about her stay here:

Thank you, Martina!