A stand towards standstill

In her work A stand towards standstill Ingunn Fjóla Ingþórsdóttir invites the exhibition guests to create the piece with her. The preparation and the idea of the installation is her own, but the guests are the ones who, with their participation, execute and install the work within the exhibition space. The work becomes a connection between the artist and the audience.

The work is made up of cotton threads that are coloured with acrylic paint and tied to white helium-filled balloons. Upon arrival each guest receives a balloon with a thread tied to it. Their part in the installation is to release the balloon within the exhibition space whereby creating the ever-changing composition of the piece. Painting is a constant theme in Ingunn Fjóla´s work; seen here in the application of paint to the threads as if they were canvas.

With this work Ingunn Fjóla’s aim is to let go of the control she usually has over the composition of her pieces. She gets the audience to perform the work and by doing so they produce the internal ratios of the work. The aesthetics of the piece is made up of the colours Ingunn Fjóla has chosen for the threads, as well as by the arrangement of them by the audience.

The viewers’ perception is for Ingunn Fjóla an important part of the work. She thinks of the work as a playground where an aesthetic game is played. How the colours will come to interact is not known beforehand neither is it known how the audience will perceive their combination. Will the colours blend together in their eyes and become new colours? How many threads the work will include depends on the number of guests, but it is likely that the more threads there are the richer the visual effect will be.

Jófríður Benediktsdóttir