Question and Answer

English version of the interview

I was interviewed by SÍM for their recent newsletter and it was published just days ago. I was asked about my projects and about how the residency was affecting my work:

Q: What are you working on at the SIM residency?

A: I am working on ideas…I'm reading and researching contemporary artists and various art movements to discover more about myself and the work that I make. I am also thinking and writing. I take a walk almost every day just to think and observe and I take photos as I go. Finally, I am spending time closely examining my photographs and short videos, giving them more attention than I have in the past. I think something interesting is happening with them and I am trying to pay attention.

an image from the series "11 Minutes" 

Q: Do you feel that the residency and or Iceland is affecting your work?

A: I feel that the residency and Iceland are affecting my work in a positive manner. SÍM and the surrounding landscape provide time and space and both are exactly what I need at this point in my artistic life.

a still from a video I made in Höfn, southeast Iceland

In addition to the questions and images that appear in the newsletter, I was asked a few other questions and gave SÍM a bunch of images to pick from. Here's some of what was not included, including the images I have posted now:

Q: First impression of Iceland/Reykjavík?

A: When I stepped off the plane for the first time last year, I felt simultaneously excited and at ease. It felt like I was coming home.

Q: First word you learned in Icelandic?

A. fullkomin (translation: perfect)

rope arrangement from Fieldwork Presentation #1

Q: Where‘s the energy in Iceland?

A: It's everywhere but I feel it most when standing in a moss-covered lava field or when looking at a glacier.

Icelandic version of the interview

You can read the interview and view the entire newsletter here. 

Thanks for reading.

Fieldwork: Arranging an Experience

The space is clean, tables are moved, objects are roughly arranged and lights are placed. We have a projector and a wonderful, vintage pull-down projector screen, a big map of Iceland and several borrowed laptops and iPads. There is an exhibition space and a sitting area. Tomorrow we will paint a few table tops and two walls, create an installation of ephemera and finalize the arrangement of the objects. It's coming together and feels promising. 

Presentation #1 takes place tomorrow, Wednesday, June 18 from 6-8pm.

Please visit us and "like" us on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

Fieldwork: New Territory

It's been a busy couple of days for Fieldwork. We are nearly done with our map and spent a few hours today cleaning the exhibition space. This project, which marks some new territory for me, uses all sorts of media and materials to communicate and share an experience. There's an interactive Google map, found objects, a variety of data, writing, photography, video and sound. We will present these forms in an alternative exhibition format and allow our audience to participate in whatever way they wish from exploring the map to examining physical objects. The exhibition space is a well-worn artist studio with beautiful natural light, paint splashed tables and a stainless utility sink. John and I will try to create an inviting laboratory of information, narrative and objects via arrangements and projections.

I'm finding the entire process to be exciting, challenging and very, very interesting. It combines so many things that I love like maps and collecting and is also opening me up to new forms of expression through the use of data and the internet. It's also my first collaborative piece like this and the balanced give and take that is happening is wonderful.

Presentation #1 takes place this coming Wednesday from 6-8pm.

Please visit us and "like" us on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

My Hands are in It, Part Three

For the last few weeks I've been working on a collaborative project with my friend, John Rogers. The project is called "Fieldwork."

Fieldwork is a collaboration between artists John Rogers and Amy Tavern.The project is a multidisciplinary “fieldwork”, presented online & IRL, that incorporates ideas of space, movement, memory and technology; place, image, experience and object.The “findings” of Fieldwork are presented in an array of formats, with internet and social media explored and reconfigured as art spaces, creating a flow of content and an expression of information generated by moving through the world.

This includes a map that uses GPS coordinates to accurately place photographs, found objects, videos and other media into an ongoing online presentation. As well as the “facts” of these travels, the map will collate the artists’ experience of the journey and the project’s development, via accompanying texts and process documentation. Fieldwork will also be shown IRL, drawing together these strands with projections, arrangements of objects, exhibition of images and videos, and the artists present and working in a constructed art-lab-gallery-studio environment.

Presentation #1 takes place in Reykjavík, Iceland, on June 18, 2014 at the SÍM basement, Seljavegur 32, Reykjavík 101. The presentation will also be open June 19 and 20 from 2-6pm each day.

Begin exploring Fieldwork via the map, which can be found here.You can add Fieldwork on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr and YouTube to watch the project evolve.

John and I will be in residence for the three days it's open, continuing work on the project and welcoming visitors. In this regard, Fieldwork is an eternally unfinished live work - a process and a scenario. Drop in and see us.

Thanks for reading.