The Golden Plover Has Arrived
The Golden Plover Has Arrived
Hafnarhús
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An installation by Steingrímur Eyfjörð which was Iceland’s contribution to the Venice Biennal in 2007.
The works of Steingrímur Eyfjörð (b. 1954) take on diverse topics in contemporary culture and Icelandic folk culture. Delving into the confluence between past and present, Eyfjörð probes Icelanders’ cultural heritage, and their contemporary view of it, with multifaceted and often critical evocations.
Three-dimensional works and photographs are prominent in his art, along with drawings and text.
His use of text alludes to the visual textual uses of the artists of the Flúxus group, but he also refers directly to the literary canon. Many of his works build on collaborations with other artists and with a motley group of individuals with specialized knowledge and fields of interest.
Steingrímur has been part of the Icelandic art scene since the mid-seventies. He studied visual arts at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts from 1971 to 1975 and in 1978. After studies in Edinburgh and Helsinki he made his way to Holland, where he pursued graduate studies from 1980 to 1983 at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.
Steingrímur has more than forty solo exhibitions under his belt and has participated in many group exhibitions in Iceland and abroad. In 2006 the National Gallery of Iceland assembled a comprehensive retrospective of Eyfjörð’s work, and in 2007 Eyfjörð represented Iceland at the world-renowned Venice Biennale.
The present exhibition at the Reykjavik Art Museum’s Hafnarhús was first mounted for the Biennale, where it was on display from June to November 2007.
THE GOLDEN PLOVER
The plover has come to sing away the snow,
to sing away sadness; it’s in her power. She has told me the curlew is coming soon,
and sunshine in valleys and fields in flower. She has taken me to task for my failings,
for slacking off and sleeping too soundly. She has told me to stay awake and labor and,
in good hope, welcome summer roundly.
Páll Ólafsson.
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