Jónsi: Flóð

Each of Jónsi's works is a comprehensive world where space, sound, light and aroma form an unbroken whole. In his exhibition FLÓÐ (Flood) there are four works from 2023-2024, three of which take over their own exhibition gallery in Reykjavík Art Museum's Hafnarhús and one is placed outside by the entrance. Nature is at the fore, both as subject and material. Impressions are drawn from external and internal processes such as wind, tides, daylight and tectonics, but also from breathing and the flow of the body. The works are man-made, but their effect on the audience is equivocal and multi-layered, akin to an experience of nature. They appeal to different senses and evoke a deep connection between man and environment, here and now, in a non-stop cycle. There are forces at work that are stirring beneath the surface and can erupt and spill over us with unpredictable consequences.

Jónsi, Jón Þór Birgisson (b. 1975), received international recognition at the beginning of his career as the frontman of the band Sigur Rós. For the past two decades, he has worked with musicians, visual artists and filmmakers on works across art media. Together with his family, Jónsi has been running the perfume house Fischersund since 2017. Jónsi is known for his work in the field of music, and for the last five years he has focused on transferring his experiments with music and sound to the realm of spatial experience in the context of visual art. He has, among other things, held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania, The Nordic Museum in Seattle, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. He has been living in Los Angeles in the USA for the past few years.

“Flóð is a spatial, scent, and sound sculpture, my main inspiration being the ocean… and the ocean being this ominous and mysterious force playing a central part in our Icelandic lives. It’s basically about ‘the big wave,’ a wave that takes us all and destroys everything in its path. The effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, flooding, melting glaciers and intensified natural disasters, are happening all around us, and this piece is a reflection of that dire reality.” – Jónsi