Org vél – Davíð Þór Jónsson
Until 23 December, musician and composer artist Davíð Þór Jónsson will perform each weekday inside i8 Gallery on a Hammond organ, which will remain on view in the gallery when not in use. With its tangle of cords and cumbersome appearance, the instrument—an electric C2 Hammond organ built around 1948 and bought in 2000 by Jónsson in Portland, Oregon—creates a sculptural presence as it sits quietly in the gallery space.
Each weekday around noon, the electric organ’s motors and lights come on, and Davíð Þór Jónsson settles down to play an hour of improvisations, filling the frigid winter air of Reykjavik with sound through speakers positioned outside the gallery, all while being recorded on the inside.
Jónsson’s compositions fluctuate in length, tempo, and timbre depending on his mood each day. While performing, his creativity is continuously ignited by the city sounds outside the window and office chatter within the gallery, and he periodically lingers on impromptu renditions of well-known melodies that come to mind.
Org vél, the title of the performance, is made up of two Icelandic terms that translate to “shout, scream, or noise (like that of children)” and “machine or magical device” in English. In Icelandic, two terms are frequently combined to describe a new object or device that lacks definition in the dictionary.
A limited-edition USB drive containing the entire collection of recordings from the fifteen days of performances is now available on i8’s web shop. Each USB flash drive is numbered and signed.
