In December 2015 we travelled to Ólafsfjörður, a remote fishing town in the North of Iceland, to begin a 3 month artist residency at Listhus Artspace.
Situated on the coastal mouth of lake Ólafsfjarðarvatn, the town faces directly north towards Grimsey Island, Iceland’s northern most point at which it crosses the Arctic Circle. Nothing quite prepared us for the unique and inspiring landscape, or how welcoming, open and receptive the people we met and worked with were.
During the winter months, the sun doesn’t rise above the surrounding envelope of mountains. While the town remains in shadow, the bright skies change everyday; pure white, neon blues and pinks, orange and grey clouds. Only glimpses of sun touch the distant opposing peaks. The limited sunlit hours shifted our sense of time, replaced by different patterns and routines.
Since our return we have been inspired to continue the development of a series of immersive & interactive installations and performances, experimenting with film, light, musical themes and binaural location recordings, exploring the experience of living through the dark winter in a remote town on the edge of the Arctic region.