Welcome the exhibition opening of Stare in Gerðarsafn, Saturday 25th January at 5 p.m. in Gerðarsafni. Brimming with life the works tread around the artists’ selves in the exhibition Stare, which is a part of the Iceland Photo Festival 2025.
People portrayed in the exhibition stand in their vulnerability facing the audience. They invite us to come closer, to stare at them. But they also stare back, far from being powerless subjects of the photographer. We, the audience, are welcome but we have entered their domain. The works are radical whispers, and we must step inside to hear the unrest, residing in personal narratives, stories of the world told from the unique perspective of each artist.
The photographic medium plays a leading role in the exhibition with imperfection characterizing many of the images, where carefully constructed composition and technical perfection are cast aside to approach sincerity, attempting rather to show life as it is. Rawness is employed to make us see from an emotional level and show us the energy, trauma, chaos, and drama of life, but also the humour and creativity. Traditional rules of the photographic medium are broken in an ode to the medium. Here, great beauty lies, but it is not the beauty of fine literature and landscape painting; instead we have buzzing and punk lyrics, diary entries and open hearts, bodily fluids and vulnerability. Which becomes unbreakable in its fragile softness.
Image: An Obscure Self Portrait, Adele Hyry, 2020.
Artists:
Adele Hyry
Dýrfinna Benita Basalan
Jenny Rova
JH Engström
Jói Kjartans
Kristinn G. Harðarson
Michael Richardt
Sadie Cook
