ef þú horfir nógu lengi, 2023

Borgarfjörður eystri (population: ~100) is a remote fishing village in East Iceland. I went there to work in a fish factory when I was 18, and have kept going back ever since. There’s something about it, the colourful mountains, the unpredictable fog, the nonchalance and fortitude of the villagers.

I was once asked to paint Borghildur, the elf queen that lives in Álfaborg, a big rock in the center of town. He’d never seen her, he said, and neither had I. Instead of trying to imagine what she looked like, and no doubt falling into cliché, I decided to go to Álfaborg every day to look and to paint. Whatever would turn up in the paintings would surely be some sort of representation of Borghildur, or a representation of what it is that keeps me coming back.

This exhibition ended up being an unexpected exploration of my growing roots in Borgarfjörður eystri, and what I’ve learned about the place. A poem appears and reappears throughout the exhibition, describing where she can be found, in the heather-woven rocks, in the gorge between eyebrows, in the rear view mirror as I leave.