Anna Rún Tryggvadóttir focuses on the great but invisible forces of the earth’s magnetism and the ever-changing magnetic north. The works in the exhibition are part of her larger, ongoing study of geology and the effects of physical laws on the environment. Anna Rúnar’s poetic exploration appears in drawings and sculpture that leads to a deeper understanding of our anthropomorphic perspective on the world.
In the center of the exhibition, the viewer comes across the sculpture Derailing, an upright compass needle that flickers to various directions. The red color of the needle is the same as the magnetic needle of the compass. The rope, which alternately loops up and down, refers to the seafaring culture of the Icelanders and the fishing industry; red is also a symbol of danger.
The installation also features a series of watercolors based on various calculated positions of the Earth’s magnetic poles over the last 16 million years – a striking revelation of the movements of the Earth’s magnetic field throughout Earth’s history. In some of these works, Anna Rún turns the maps to change the position of the north. Maps, by their very nature, are laid out based on the perspective the cartographer emphasizes. We are used to the traditional western perspective where north is shown at the top. This is possibly caused by the fact that in the beginning the stars, especially the Pole Star, were navigated and looked to the sky. However, the location of the north is a solitary fabrication: the earth floats in the vacuum of space and there are no cardinal directions.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Art Foundation.
