Ragnheiður Guðmundsdóttir

Traveling in unfamiliar places I am guided by intuition to take the next step. The unknown becomes present in the perceptual world of my own existence. It is an exploration of landscape, unknown places, experienced both spiritually and physically. The memory that resides in the land can take on many forms, evoking strong emotions and raising questions about the boundaries between, on the one hand, my mind’s imagination and what it can project, and, on the other hand, what the body senses and we cannot always readily apprehend. Past and present meet in the same moment and time becomes relative. The body senses the spirit of the past: memories that have taken root in the landscape, on farms or in ruined buildings. Has the spirit of those who dwelled here been transformed into the material form of the surroundings? Perhaps we must face that which we fear and enter into the unknown to truly find beauty? Does danger lie at the heart of beauty—in the constant transformations of nature?

 

Inner journeys are a key part of my artistic practice and attempt to understand the context of things, the connection between the body and nature, mind and matter, birth and death. I try to find places where I want to dwell for a while—villages, farms or buildings—to heed my intuition and sense the energy of the people who have been there. It can be difficult to know what exactly is perceived. What stems from imagination and what is in fact the invisible presence that is perceived through the body? Perhaps the two are intertwined. The journey can be exhilarating when one releases control, even if just for a moment. These experiences become the material of artistic creations. 

 

Art is a method to project the elusive reality that the rational thought of science has had difficulty to comprehend. Even so everything in our world seems to be intertwined like a thread that binds and weaves everything together, strengthening our relations and sheltering us in a form of clothing from birth to death. I believe that there is a mystical thread between the seen and the unseen that can never be torn apart, and that it is important to be open to the new and unexpected phenomena, whatever their form to understand who we are and where we come from.

 

Spirit, nature, the mystical, the subconscious and perception have long been explored in the world of artists and have been used as tools in their practice. Art gives us the ability to express and enhance the connections between these worlds, which is exceptionally important in our current times that are ripe with stimulus and chaos, yet lack connection to perception, spirit and nature.

 

In artistic practice, each artwork is a stitch into a greater work of creation, where the thread constantly pulls forward, step-by-step in the evolution of new work. The complete oeuvre will never be concluded but one can gaze at the interconnection between the stitches.