Husavik

Here is documentation of my Artist Residency in Husavik on the north coast of Iceland, where I lived in January and February 2015.

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Exhibition and Private View, 12 February 2015

The Artist-in-Residence Exhibition PV took place on Thursday 12 February 2015. For the exhibition, I exhibited the following:

Aural (exhibited in the fridge space, in darkness)

• Dettifoss Waterfall recording
• Extremely Low Frequency radio wave recording of auraural activity
• Gale Wind recording
• Hail recording
• Geothermal Bubbles recording
• Crunchy Snow recording

Visual (projected)

• A selection of 125 photographs

Verbal (printed)

• A printed piece of research (5,000 words), completed during the residency, exploring crossovers between art, science, poetry, film

Material (displayed)

• Two jamjars containing black sand collected from the black sand beach in Husavik (steep cliff descent/ascent to obtain)

Guests inside the FFFFF at the Private View (Fantastic Former Fishermen’s Fish Fridge)

The Door to the FFFFF

Setting up my sound installation inside the fantastic former fishermen’s fish fridge. 12 February 2015.

The FFFFF Door

Recording Dettifoss Waterfall

Here I am recording the sound of Dettifoss Waterfall, “Europe’s most powerful waterfall”. It sounded like roaring TV snow. 11 February 2015.

Icicles on the Cliff of Husavik Beach

I climbed down the cliff to take these pictures. The climb back up was hard as my rucksack contained jamjars full of black sand, so it was difficult to balance. The spiky crampons on my snowboots were vital.

The Black Sand Beach

Husavik Church, Midnight 9 February 2015

Back-up planSky, 7pm

 Sky, 7 February 2015

In the air… 

Landing in Husavik

The Eagle

About to board The Eagle for the domestic flight from Reykjavik to Husavik.

In the clouds…

Poet Rooms

Domestic flights were all cancelled on Friday 6 February due to bad weather, so I checked into a hotel next to the airport. The hotel happened to have a range of themed “Poet Rooms”, each dedicated to an Icelandic poet.

Taxidermy Menagerie

The hotel also happened to have a large taxidermy menagerie.

Guarding

Bird Bookcase

Beak

Plan from the Plane

“It’s a pity we don’t whistle at one another, 

like birds. Words are misleading”   – Halldor Laxness, Under The Glacier

Photographed at Klafavik Airport on 4 February 2015, on my way to travel to FACT Liverpool to give my presentation at the Send & Receive symposium about Poetry, Film and Technology in the 21st Century. These words resonated with some of the themes raised at the symposium.

Chiaroscuro

On the Road

Lake 

Vital Equipment

Geothermal Activity

Footprints

Snow Cave

Mid-afternoon light

A peak

Lava Rock

These rocks were formed by lava, and this extraordinary example has a hole through the middle.

Electricity Pylons in Iceland

A fantastic pylon design proposal by Choi + Shine Architects.

Gale, 25 January 2015

I thought it was a bit windy today, then I realised that the Icelandic Meteorological Office had issued a Weather Warning:  “Strong gale warning (more than 20 m/s) is expected widely until after midnight, and even whole gale (more than 24 m/s) in some places.” A whole gale is number 10 on the Beaufort Scale, and 12 (the maximum number on the scale) is a hurricane. Here is today’s wind map:

Sperm Whale

Here is a picture of a portion of sperm whale in a packet, sadly on sale in the local supermarket at the fish counter.

Pickled Shark

A delicacy in Iceland is pickled shark. It contains 17g of protein and 36g of fat per 100g.

The Geo-Thermal Cheese Tub Spa

This is the Husavik spa hidden in a top secret location on a mountain. This geo-thermal spa is made of a former cheese tub tin that was used for making large quantities of yoghurt/cheese. After trekking back from the frosty black-sand beach, I had a hot dip before continuing my journey home in the snow. Highly recommended.

En route to the geo-thermal hot tub

This reminds me of Tarkovsky circa Stalker. The geo-thermal cheese tin hot tub is to the right, out of view and in the middle of this extraordinary landscape.

Sky circa 16:30 on 23 January 2015

Icicles

A “Tooth” Icicle

The black-sand sea

Yellow Lighthouse at distance

Snow Star

Husavik architecture

Photographs taken next to the yellow lighthouse, on my return trek. The light had changed dramatically by then.

20 January 2015

Husavik Lighthouse

Composition in white, yellow and blue (snow, lighthouse, sea, sky).

Lampposts in daylight: the afternoon view in Husavik. With good snowboots and crampons, walking in the snow is manageable.

Monday 19 January 2015

The brightest building in Husavik so far

An extraordinary coloured building in Husavik.

Husavik: Sun, Moon, Light

Sunday 18 January 2015

My coordinates are: 66°2’43” N, 17°20’34” W

Sunrise Today: 10:54
Sunset Today: 15:46

Moonrise Today: 08:30
Moonset Today: 14:06

Daylight Hours: 4 hours, 51 minutes

I have arrived in Husavik

Friday 16 January, evening

I have finally arrived in Húsavik, after travelling from Akureyri by road. Many thanks to Marina for meeting me and for showing me the wonderful accommodation, and the fantastic studio spaces at Fjúk Art Centre (run on geothermal energy), including a huge former fridge studio space with a vault-like door. I enjoyed smoked fish for supper and am looking forward to spending the next month in this inspiring location.

View from Plane

The journey to Husavik in Iceland continues…

Friday 16 January 2015, morning

I am in Iceland and still en route to Husavik, my final destination on the north coast. I left London on Thursday 15 January in the morning and flew to Reykjavik’s international airport. I had planned to then take a domestic flight from Reykjavik to Husavik, but upon arrival at Reykjavik, I discovered that all flights to Husavik had been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions – and the next available flight would be on Sunday afternoon! My options were to stay put in Reykjavik for three days, or find another way of travelling to Husavik. I decided to keep going and managed to book a flight to Akureyri, a town in northern Iceland, which is a few hours drive away from Husavik. The one-hour flight was on a very small aircraft: there was a lot of turbulence on the journey, and I was relieved to land. I found a hotel for the night and today I shall continue my journey to Husavik by road. This photograph was taken upon arrival at Akureyri airport.

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Zata Banks awarded an Artist Residency in Iceland in 2015

I am delighted to have been awarded an Artist Residency in Iceland in 2015. I am looking forward to spending 5 weeks in Iceland producing new creative work in the context of the Northern Lights, sulphuric volcanoes, boiling mud, and Europe’s most powerful waterfall.