Artist in Residence - Iceland.
The Light Grey Residency Program included a diverse team of storyboard artists, illustrators, animators, industrial designers, photographers and creatives from around the globe. Residents hailed from the United States, Canada, Singapore, Beirut, and Russia. Gallery opening to be held in the fall of 2019 at Light Grey Art Lab.
Team Eldur (Team Fire) travelled through Northern Iceland, visiting an active and ever-changing landscape of geothermal pools, boiling mud pots, steaming vents, rocky beaches, and hidden lookouts. Artists sketched, hiked, and explored the landscape and gathered in the evenings for creative workshops and discussions.
For more information about the residency and Team Eldur: http://lightgreyartlab.com/iceland-residency-2018-team-eldur
The residency was in the central northern area of Iceland. The land was extremely diverse. Giant waterfalls to volcanic landscapes that were full of movement and lunar like aspects. Some areas of visitation included:
The Goðafoss waterfall is one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Iceland. It flows from the river Skjálfandafljót and has a height of about 40 feet and spans almost a hundred feet at it’s width.
As described to me, Iceland’s religion drew around Norse Gods. In the year 1000 a man by the name of Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði made Christianity the official religion of Iceland. He contemplated the old ways verse the new religion of Christianity at the top of the waterfall and once his decision had been made, he threw the statues of the Norse Gods over the edge, making Christianity the official religion.
Dimmuborgir is an area of rocks, cliffs and caves. In folklore, there are two things regarding this area. One being that Dimmuborgir is the pathway to hell, and the other that it is the home to the Christmas Yule Lads, a group of trolls that come to your home and cause varying types of mischief.
The Light Grey Art Lab Creative Residencies are 6-7 day sessions with daily adventures exploring our surroundings and much time dedicated to learning from one another. The intensive residency workshop program provides artists-in-residence from a variety of creative backgrounds, practices and locations around the world an opportunity to share their ideas on creativity, art and design theory, techniques and methods, and a wide variety of global creative themes. The residency programs are by far the most academic of the travel programs offered at Light Grey Art Lab, and are filled via a yearly application process with a focus on diversity, ability to articulate their own practice and a willingness to learn, share and grow with individuals from other fields.