VIDEO: Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir-Finding Beauty and Tragedy in Objects
“I want to understand why everything exists.” Meet the Icelandic artist Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir, who, in her art, uses found objects and shapes from discarded plastic materials such as enter buttons, clothing tags or bread clips. “I do art because I’m always searching for some truth or beauty.” Since childhood, Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir has been curious about the meaning of the world around her. “I just search for these golden nuggets in society. They come to me, these found objects, via just being alert all of the time.” In her studio, you’ll see boxes filled with random objects. Paper towels with the Pringles logo. A textile spray can with a t-shirt saying ‘Peace’ on it. Colourful magnets. “The things that I get drawn to are things that I don’t understand or that are a little bit nonsensical,” she says: “I want to understand why everything exists.”
“Often, pieces come to me within a sort of speculation.” Birgisdóttir’s sculptures often present an actual found object or a twisted version of an everyday item. Things are taken out of scale and out of context. An example could be an over-dimensioned bread clip that keeps bread fresh in the supermarket’s plastic bags: “This is a very distinct form. What happens if I distort the scale or make it out of a material that is completely different?” That material is a blue, discarded gym mat. “I was just interested in what happens when you are exposed to that form behaving in a way that is not natural to the original thing.” When talking about the small, often overlooked object that she uses, Hildigunnur BIrgisdóttir says: “They are sometimes secondary things that exist in the world only for other things to kind of be. Especially the small plastic objects that I’ve been working with. They often only exist to facilitate a sale.” As an example, this could be a hanger for a sock that you would purchase or the plastic tag of a shirt – things that most people will throw away immediately after buying the item: “I just find that there is so much beauty and so much tragedy in this one object made out of plastic.”
Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir (b. 1980) lives and works in Reykjavik. In her practice, she explores ideas of beauty, utility, and context, continually questioning the relationship between perception and reality. Birgisdóttir often examines banal items such as computer buttons and plastic clips. In 2021, she was included in shows at Iceland’s Reykjavik Art Museum, the GES-2 House of Culture, Moscow, Russia; the V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, Russia; and H2H, Athens, Greece. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Iceland, the Reykjavík Art Museum, and The Living Art Museum in Reykjavik, among others. Birgisdóttir graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2003. In 2024, Birgisdóttir will represent Iceland at the Venice Art Biennale in Italy.
Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen at her studio in Reykjavik, Iceland, in May 2023. Camera: Simon Wehye, Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen, © Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023. Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen