Farewell to Iceland

Well it's farewell to Iceland today. As I sit here with my bags packed in sunny Reykjavik town (14 degrees, heatwave!) waiting for Kristjana to come give us a lift to the BSI buss station my thoughts turn to London and new opportunities.

See you in the pub kids!

Randoms

Photos taken by friends in Iceland

Photos taken by: Shona MacPherson, Lauren Camarata and Jessica Frelinghuysen

Paul Stanley ræðir við listamenn

Paul Stanley er gestalistamaður SÍM í Júní, hann býður listamönnum að kíkja í SÍM húsið í kaffibolla og ræða um myndlist. Sjá lýsingu hér að neðan. 

I am an artist from London currently on a one-month residency with SIM here in Reykjavik. As part of my current project I am offering to sit down and listen to artists tell me about their practices here in Iceland. As an artist, writer and curator I believe that art is about discourse, an attempt to find what is common as humans in our separate existences.

By listening to other artists, discussing the links and shared ground in our different practices I hope to give something back to the art world. In a capitalist society where we are encouraged to consume more and more, where consumption is the only means of expressing identity and humanity then an act of generosity is arguably one of the most subversive acts we can do.

Hægt er að hafa samband við Paul í gegnum tölvupóst á netfangið: paulstanley66@yahoo.co.uk

Einnig eru allir velkomnir á opnun gestalistamanna SÍM, föstudaginn 24. júní milli 17 og 19.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=234327419930606

The Two-Hour Show

Poster designed by Elisa Vendramin

Just back from a stay over in Hofn, the Icelandic capital of lobsters (although their little Lobster Parliament was closed that day)

We spent part of the summer solstice looking at Icebergs breaking off from the Vatnajokull glacier and floating into the sea.

Fun Fact: Vatnajokull is so big it covers 13% of Iceland

I Just Like This Photo

Funny how sometimes a badly taken photo can be more interesting than a well taken photograph.

In my opinion

Solo Show

I am having a very tiny solo show at the SIM exhibition space in downtown Reykjavik on the 28th June. I am inviting Icelandic artists to come and talk about what they do, here's the invite:

Invite to Reykjavik Artists

By Paul Stanley

I am an artist from London currently on a one-month residency with SIM here in Reykjavik. As part of my current project I am offering to sit down and listen to artists tell me about their practices here in Iceland. As an artist, writer and curator I believe that art is about discourse, an attempt to find what is common as humans in our separate existences.

By listening to other artists, discussing the links and shared ground in our different practices I hope to give something back to the art world. In a capitalist society where we are encouraged to consume more and more, where consumption is the only means of expressing identity and humanity then an act of generosity is arguably one of the most subversive acts.

Who Ordered the Pizza?

I have been using my old 'analogue' camera as my digital camera died on me a while ago. The camera already had a film in it, half used, from before I moved down to London. There were twelve pictures already taken, some of old friends, one of my ex Lisa and a couple from a performance I did just before I split up with Lisa. There were also these three photos of a pizza. Why I took three photos of what looks like the dullest pizza ever I have no idea but here they are.

Paul of the North

Me, punching myself in the face... for no adequately explained reason

Welcome to the world Matilde Shepperson

Welcome to the world Matilde Shepperson (sorry about the mess)

My Favorite Mistake

An accidental splicticing of two photographs. The first of the island opposite Korpulfsstadtir the second the outside of Korpulfsstadtir

Danger - Artists At Work

Elisa, Shona, Clemens and Lauren

Red Sky at Night

It is hard to get across in these photos just how red the light was at 'nightfall' that night. These were taken while walking around Grundarfjorour where we stayed the night while touring the Snaefellsness peninsular.

Again, the photos were badly processed, washing out a lot of the red light and not properly lining up the photos. Anyone know anywhere in London I can get this fixed?

Getting my Photos Back

So as you can see the photo lab in Reykjavik I used didn't exactly do a great job with my pics. Not only is the colour all washed out but their are numerous mistakes in the basic lining up of the photos throughout all three films. I have been told that many Icelanders send their films to a lab in New York to be processed. Sadly I was only told this afterwards. Grrr

Still I like the composition of this image. I have taken quite a few images of my fellow artists recording and documenting our travels. I am thinking this might be an interesting line of investigation.

In this photo (from left to right) Shona MacPherson, Elisa Vendramin, Clemens Wilhelm, Jessica Frelinghuysen and Lauren Camarata

Archive

This one I found in an article on Reykjavik's archive recording the Icelandic people. I am increasingly drawn to the different ways we archive and record our lives

Burger King

I just love this logo I found on the side of a Burger King bag a few years ago. The Icelandic people seem to love their American style burgers and hot dogs so I decided to add this to the eventual publication.

Fun fact - there are no MacDonalds in Iceland after all three restaurants shut down during the crash.

I am starting put some ideas, text and images together for a publication, maybe a zine on my time in Iceland. The theme would be how ideas become work, growing and mutating over time. In my experience residencies tend to act as periods for collecting together source materials, thinking through ideas and so on.

Matthew Miller RIP

I was very sorry to get the news yesterday that my colleague at Fabrica Matthew Miller passed away. He was a truly lovely guy and my thoughts go out to his family and loved ones

Clemens' pictures

While we are waiting for my photos to come back here a three panoramas taken by one of the other residency artist Clemens Wilhelm

Check out his stuff at: www.clemenswilhelm.com

On Top of The World

Just a quick mobile phone pic I took on the flight over. My iphone has been refusing to talk with my new MacBook Pro so I am having trouble uploading photos. I am thinking of using this image for one of my prints-from-mobile-phone-pics. I need to come up with a better title first!

There will be pictures from my recent trip to Snaefellsness soon.

The 'Brick'

And so work begins...

The Hub

The studio Elisa and I share upstairs at Korpulfsstadir

Korpulfsstadir Confidential

Images of the Korpulfsstadir residency site on the outskirts of Reykjavik. Pictures ably taken by my fellow Korpulfsstadirian inmate Elisa Vendramin

Velkomin heim

I'm here, I arrived in Reykjavik just a few hours ago and now I am sat in the residency flat listening to spotify and eating coco pops. This is how we internationally renowned artist like to hang!

The flight over was amazing, and I'll tell you more about that after a good nights sleep, but like an idiot I packed away all the sketchbooks/journals/notebooks that I had bought for the express reason of recording the residency experience in my suitcase. I had to scribble down a few tired notes during the bus ride into Reykjavik from the airport so I wouldn't forget any of my 'profound' thoughts (bet you can't wait!)

But I'll post about them later. Tomorrow is a national holiday in Iceland and for the first time since I left full time employment last year I am going to feel like I really earned this morning in bed.

Bless, bless as we say here in Reykjavik!

Paul