News

Laminarium

21 April – 19 June 2010
Stanley Picker Gallery

Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture
Kingston University, Knights Park
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 2QJ

Tue – Fri 12 – 6pm
Sat 12 – 4pm
Mon – by appointment
www.stanleypickergallery.org

Dead or Alive
27 April – 24 October, 2010
Museum of Arts and Design, New York
2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019
USA
www.madmuseum.org

POST FOSSIL: excavating 21st century creation
24 April – 27 June 2010
21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo
9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
JAPAN
www.2121designsight.jp

Dettifoss

We will add the captions tomorrow…

Tangible Nothingness

It is difficult to express or photograph the nothingness that surrounds us as we drive through the country. The absence of anything giving us a sense of scale of the landscape is stunning just as the infinite details we see for miles, in the soil and rocks, the colours of the plants, the changes in light, wind and water.

Click on the images to enlarge them and use the back button to get back to the gallery overview.

We visited the award-winning Siglufjordur Icelandic Herring Era Museum, only a stone’s throw from our studio. It charts the rise and decline of the former ‘Herring Capital of the World’ and the great ‘Herring Adventure’ that lasted from the 1867 to 1968.

Hundreds of herring barrels being packed in Siglufjordur harbour. The photograph was taken in the heyday of the herring adventure, long before people started to give thought to the idea that the stocks might not last forever.

The museum consists of three buildings, showcasing different aspects of life and times in the herring capital. We particularly liked the boathouse with its rebuilt pier and fishing boats. The display was developed together with theatre set designers and includes everything from projections to sounds and smells of the harbour.

Here a view of Siglufjordur in the early 1900s…

— and here for comparison the town at maximum capacity. The population had risen from 380 to just under 4000 people. Today, the harbour structures and most of the factories have been dismantled the town has shrunk to 1200 inhabitants.

Another glimpse of the museum, a rebuilt fishing storehouse.

And a final view of Siglufjordur at the start of the herring boom.

This is the mushroom haul from our last excursion. We were pretty sure they were edible but couldn’t ask anyone to double-check because there is no Icelandic tradition of gathering mushrooms. Gero and I researched online and he sampled a little bite – and I am pleased to say is still alive and well.

We used the mushrooms for a range of dishes, among them the legendary Champignon Schnitzel.

The Herhusid residency centre team watched us closely for a few days before plucking up the courage to tuck in as well.