A foreign environment challenges the artist in residency; origins are distant and new experiences influential. Communication is mainly through senses as words are limited to a few. Possibilities of misunderstandings and disrespect for customs due to ignorance are present. Time in residency is limited to three months; space is endless.

CEAC is now presenting an exhibition by the Icelandic artist Erla Thorarinsdottir who has been an artist in residency from the middle of January.
Erla works with spaces, mentally, physically and conceptually. In her constellations narration is absent, but shapes from inner worlds of body and consciousness are apparent, with references to collective memory as a hidden yet accessible ground for communication.

The last three months the artist has been emptying her containers, or attempting to she says as they have a tendency to refill themselves, mostly during nights. For sketching she has used “fake money paper” that she found appealing before knowing its purpose. The use of silver for light transformations is frequently visible in her paintings, so lets hope this ignorance will be of no offence. Some sketches have been given bodies transformed to granite and marble; shapes from generations of women; mothers, grandmothers disappeared, reappear. Dreams appear differently in Xiamen compared to Reykjavik -here the moon is a horizontal crescent in the sky.

Gallery