Glacial Erosion

I feel the power of Sólheimajökull when the glacial water flows, hear the drops fall and feel the ice crack beneath me. The glacier is alive – it renews itself constantly. The glacier creates ice while another part of it melts. This cicle changes the glacier over time, molds the landscape underneath it, transports materials, grinds and tears the rock it rests on. This movement is called glacial erosion and you can see signs of it all around icefalls like Sólheimajökull.

In her work, Glacial Erosion, Íris María Leifsdóttir interprets how the movement of glaciers appear to her. She expresses the movement through a sound piece of the glacier, a sculpture of melting ice and a performance where she paints with glacial clay and sand from Sólheimajökull along with ash from Katla. Melting glaciers are one of the most prominent manifestations of global warming and in her work Íris María projects fragments of her own experiences of these imminent changes.

Special thanks to: Antonía Berg, Anna Rún, Ingunn Fjóla, Unnar Örn, Jóhannes, Andrea Eik, Elísabet, Steinunn Ólína, Ragnheiður Harpa, Deepa, Klakavinnslan and Anton Sturla.

Íris María Leifsdóttir (1993) is in her last semester in the M.A. visual arts program at The Iceland University of The Arts. She graduated from The Reykjavík School of Visual Arts in 2020 and from The University of Iceland in 2021, with a degree in sociology. The weather and the effect of time are key elements in her creative process and she allows the forces of nature to shape her artwork. These effects are photographed to give insight into the different processes and erosions of the materials that Íris María uses in her work.

Openingin Friday 10.03.23 16:00. The show is open until the ice is melted.