Solander 250: Letters from Iceland
August 26, 2023The exhibition Solander 250 — Letters from Iceland commemorates one of the first foreign scientific expeditions to Iceland which took place 250 years ago in 1772. On this journey was one of Carl von Linné‘s apostles, the Swedish natural scientist Daniel Solander. Among the things Solander and his fellow travellers recorded in Iceland were nature, culture, traditions and clothing styles. Ten Icelandic artists, all printmakers, were selected to interpret these events, as well as how the nation and the country have changed since then.
My piece in the exhibit, Eldprent, is a response to the official purpose of the expedition, which was to observe the Hekla volcano. The travelers were 10 years too late to catch the eruption, so I give them a small sized “tourist” eruption (Geldingardalur 2021). However, the image is overlaid with a warning printed with volcanic ash - the opening handwritten lines from Eldritið, which details the devastating results of the Laki eruption in 1783. The print was created using the historic gum bichromate process and is an edition of 10, each with slight variations as is the nature of the process. To purchase, please contact me on my contact page for more information.
The exhibition is a collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden in Iceland and the Icelandic Printmakers Association. It opened at Hafnarborg Gallery in August, 2022 and is traveling to 11 locations around Iceland to the end of 2023.