One month residency in Iceland
In August 2022, I participated in a one month residency at the Fish Factory in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland. I was very impressed by the location and the history of the building. It seemed to have had a very strong influence on the demographic and economic life of the village. I collected a sample of objects stored on site and started organizing formal interactions between them. In parallel, I photographed the way certain objects had been arranged in the landfill behind the harbour in Seyðisfjörður, a neighboring Fjörd. In their own industrial aesthetics, they follow a certain composition archetype –a object on a pedestal–, making them sculptures .
As stacking can go two-dimensionally I experimented with monotypes, using the fish conveyor belts as printing plates. By adding different layers, one obtains a richness of patterns that is reminiscent of fish scales. I liked to consider the similarity of movement between a fish conveyor belt and a printing press, and in a way, activating the conveyors in a movement that was already ”known to them”. I played around with the narrative that I too was processing fish. The manual press and the printing process itself was very labor-intensive and repetitive, which brought me at least metaphorically a little closer to the original working life at the fish factory.
residency fish factoy iceland