Shoplifter's Nervescape Opening, Kria Brekkan Performance

Nervescape is a colorful, organic, and beastly installation by Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir aka Shoplifter with sound by Kría Brekkan in the Clocktower's upper gallery. Arnardottir makes sculptures, drawings and installations with various materials, including large amounts of multi-colored synthetic hair, which explore themes of vanity, self-image, beauty and beastly mythology, as well as notions of obsession and fetish. For her installation at the Clocktower, Arnardottir uses an existing metal structure in the upstairs gallery as a skeleton for a colorful, organic, and at times beastly installation that engulfs the space, and creates a fantastical landscape which viewers can enter and interact with. Mythology from Arnardottir’s upbringing in Iceland serves as an abstract inspiration for her work, along with the idyllic landscape of American painting, and notions of fairytale drama. The installation will be the site for opening performances, and invite viewers to dwell in the artist’s imaginary world of paradoxical impressions such as beauty and horror, nature and the supernatural. Icelandic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kría Brekkan provides an elusive, environmental soundscape which will evolve over the course of the exhibition.

The artist known as Shoplifter (Hrafnhildur Arnardottir) and composer/performer Kría Brekkan sit in the Clocktower upper gallery where their collaborative work, Nervescape, is on view for the summer of 2012. The two discuss monsters, inhabiting spirits, technology, hair of many colors, process, and performance while the soundtrack plays in the background.