Sculpture from the bottom of the sea

performance in collaboration with Reykjavik dock workers as part of Keep Frozen part four at ASI art museum

SCULPTURE FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA On the occasion of the opening of Keep Frozen part four at ASI art museum on the Museum night 2016 in Reykjavik (05.02.2016) a group of dock workers from Reykjavik carried a trawler net from the Reykjavik midtown harbour and up to the art museum on the hill that is owned by the Federation of Labour in Iceland. 2016 was the 100 years anniversary year of the Federation and the 101 anniversary of the Reykjavik harbour. In the storage area of the fishing company Ögurvík in the Reykjavik harbour, a net weighing about a tonne, had been stored in a heap, recovered from a one-year sojourn at the bottom of the sea. The net belonged to the factory freezer trawler Vigri, that lost the net to the sea at the same time as the artist's documentary film Keep Frozen was being shot, in the Winter of 2014. The documentary revolves around the unloading of frozen fish from Vigri. Coincidentally, almost exactly a year later to the day, another ship found the net at the bottom of the sea and recovered it. Its colours and texture have been deeply affected by the year it spent underwater in the salty sea. At the first exhibition in the Keep Frozen series at DE-CONSTRUKT [projekts] in New York City, Guðnadóttir exhibited tiny, delicate fragments of net threads and detritus that she had found on the Atlantic coast of Africa. Large quantities of leftover threads constantly wash ashore after floating across the ocean. Some have fallen off of ships, others tumbled into the water at faraway docks. One could say that the artist brings the theme of the net full circle by now exhibiting an entire, massive net. During the exhibition opening, a performance took place in which the net was transported by a group of dock workers from the harbor, through the center of Reykjavik and up to the ASÍ Art Museum, which is situated at the top of a hill. There the workers placed the pile in the middle of Asmundarsal gallery on the 2nd floor of the museum to join the rest of the installation. In Asmundarsal, the heap of net took on the role of a “found sculpture” recovered from the bottom of the sea.

On the occasion of the opening of Keep Frozen part four at ASI art museum on the Museum night 2016 in Reykjavik (05.02.2016) a group of dock workers from Reykjavik carried a trawler net from the Reykjavik midtown harbour and up to the art museum on the hill. There the workers placed the pile in the middle of Asmundarsal gallery on the 2nd floor of the museum to join the rest of the installation.

The trawler net had been found stored in a heap after being recovered from a one-year sojourn at the bottom of the sea. It had belonged to the factory freezer trawler Vigri, the star of the documentary film Keep Frozen, who had lost the net to the sea in the winter of 2014. Coincidentally, almost exactly a year later to the day, another ship found the net and rescued it. Its colours and texture have been deeply affected by the year it spent underwater in the salty sea. The gesture of showing and transporting the net references a gesture at the first exhibition in the Keep Frozen series, Keep Frozen part one, when Gudnadóttir exhibited tiny, delicate fragments of net threads and detritus that she had found on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

In Asmundarsal, the heap of net took on the role of a “found sculpture” recovered from the bottom of the sea.

Performance view. The artist and the workers