Lunglike Shadows

Lunglike Shadows/Lungamjúkir skuggar 

22.04.-30.04. 
Arnarhlíð 1, Reykjavik 102 
Opening: 22.04.23, 4pm-6pm 

Artists: Victoria Björk, Sindri Dýrason, Sarah Degenhardt, Kamile Pikelyte, Oliver Wellmann, Galadriel González Romero, D Rosen, Inari Sandell 
Curated by: Sunna Dagsdóttir 

,,As human beings, we inhabit an inevitable material world. We live our everyday lives surrounded by, immersed in, matter. We are composed of matter.’’ It feels like we have fallen into a sort of repetition of attentiveness with the objects in our everyday life, such as our phones, clothes, and household items. Getting used to the objects that are supposed to make our lives easier, objects that in a sense have altered our reception of reality and how we relate to our surroundings. With Lunglike Shadows we want to find ways to pause and reconnect with our range of human senses circulating around and within us. The exhibition will discuss how non-human entities can help us recenter and gain a better understanding of what it means to be human. 

The exhibition takes its title from Timothy Morton’s book Dark Ecology, published in 2016, in which they state: ,,A human is made up of nonhuman components and is directly related to nonhumans. Lungs are evolved swim bladders. Yet a human is not a fish. A swim bladder, from which lungs derive, is not a lung in waiting. There is nothing remotely lunglike about it.’’ 

Morton hopes to reestablish our ties with non-human entities and to help us rebuild the curiosity and joy that can brighten the dark, strange loop that we traverse. 

Lunglike Shadows explores ways of how we can curate ethically by choosing means that support sustainable living; incorporating innovative ways of thinking and working and uniting with the needs of the natural environment. As our environment shifts, fractures, and sometimes disappears, the works in the exhibition reflect on what can be rebuilt and explore new ways of connecting with the nonhuman living world. 

The works of eight artists shape the exhibition, all approaching the subject from different angles but all uniting in the urgency and sensitivity that accompany this global state of uncertainty. The exhibition focuses on practices that fundamentally question anthropocentric worldviews from an ecological perspective, with an emphasis on non-human entities. 

Lunglike Shadows sets out to present works that embody and envision human interactions that are rooted in the material substance and entities that comprise the ecosystem of the planet. The selected artworks register the functional consequences of their materiality and cultivate responsible material interactions; questioning the character of objecthood and substance. 

The awareness of the environment's fragility has increasingly become a source of inspiration for artists and has been expressed through various mediums. Nature has been depicted beyond pure aestheticism and has become a fundamental part of contemporary art and its political battle. Current ecological problems are deeply economic and political and therefore require a continuous cultural transformation. 

Composed of methodologies that are fluid and transformative, the artists work with different temporal and spatial scales and involve various forms of knowledge, both human and nonhuman. We hope to promote a more ecological and more sustainable way of production and consumption, with greener forms of human culture and more attentive encounters. We consider what future could emerge and how we can pass a habitable environment to our multispecies descendants. 

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Graphic design: Domantė Nalivaikaitė 

My sincere thanks to all the artists, Hanna Styrmisdóttir, Sunna Ástþórsdóttir, Þorsteinn Eyfjörð, Bjarni Þór Pétursson, Litten Nyström, Knattspyrnufélagið Valur, Iona, Sara, and Emilie & to the best family and friends<3 

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Opening hours: 
Thu/Fri: 16:00-18:00 
Sat/Sun: 13:00-15:00