D1 Birta Guðjónsdóttir

Birta Guðjónsdóttir (b. 1977) uses reflection and optical illusion to challenge the viewer’s temporal and spatial impressions. Her work Somebody Will Be There directs our attention toward presence. An obscure reflection of the observer becomes part of the work, or fails to appear where expected. The bright gallery and the calm of the environment are intensified by videos in which slow and unobtrusive movements convey time and confound the viewer’s perception of the gallery space. Through presence in the work, Birta Guðjónsdóttir examines man’s awareness of himself and his attitude toward his own image, often to the verge of causing embarrassment. The work reveals the subtle moment when our separate internal and external lives meet.

Birta Guðjónsdóttir studied visual arts at the Icelandic Academy of Art, graduating in 2001. She spent a year as a visiting student at The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, and earned a Master of Arts degree from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, Holland, in 2004.