Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir’s often long-term projects result in the creation of creative documentary films, videos, multimedia installations, objects, interventions, and performances. Her current work addresses topical socio-economic aspects of her native country Iceland.

In her project All is Full of Love, Gudnadóttir explores the difficult question of an ‘independent’ Icelandic identity and the associated stereotypes and tourist myths of the present – all on the occasion of Iceland’s centenary of independence from changing Scandinavian colonial rule.

The multi-part installation project is an artistic study focusing on the conditioning effects of past and current socio-economic constellations and highlights the impact of Iceland’s most important export factors – fisheries, tourism, and the arts.  As an artist, Gudnadóttir humorously positions herself in the role of “Puffin”: the parrot-like seabirds resident in the North Atlantic, were taken by the booming tourism industry as an Icelandic emblem and are as plush figures and other cute kitsch – mass produced in China – the bestsellers of souvenir shops.

Gudnadóttir recreated such a shop with its typical attributes, literally overflowing with plush puffins,

in the entrance area of the gallery. She then leads the visitor through the photo series of a grotesquely posing human Puffin figure in the upper exhibition area, where she examines the third component of the Icelandic ‘golden triangle’, the fishery, from a socio-critical point of view through a three-movie projection. Gudnadóttir’s project exposes contemporary manifestations of crypto-colonial patterns to stimulate a critical discussion of gentrification processes currently underway in Iceland and globally in the context of economic neo-liberalization.

Walkthrough with the artist and curator Jonatan Habib Engqvist: Saturday, 19 January 2019, 5 pm