gunnhildur hauksdóttir

Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir is an Icelandic visual artist living in Reykjavik, Iceland and in Berlin, Germany. Hauksdottir combines elements of audio, video, performance, sculpture, drawing and text to create transient conceptual assemblies, exploring themes like cultural identity, nature, valor and fear. Hauksdóttir graduated from Sandberg Institute (MFA) in Amsterdam, Holland in 2006 and has been a member of the Dieter Roth Academy since 2000. She was the director of the Living Art Museum in Reykjavík from 2011 to 2014. She is involved in publications, lectures and research on artist initiatives and performance art and holds a visiting artist position at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. Hauksdottir is currently engaged in research collaboration with the Level2: Lichen Lab in Lethbridge, Canada and the Barret-Henzi Lab in the University of Lethbridge for her work Borderline Human. She holds a visiting artist position at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts holding intermissive workshops.

Artist statement

My work employs themes of nature, infantilism, consumerism and cultural identity. I work with performance, compositions, audio, drawing, sculpture and sometimes video. My sculptures normally have a function before they are displayed as a part of installation. I readily include performance and public participation in my work, either in front of an audience or for a camera. My installations are often sprung from an idea of a performance and human participation, even when it’s absent in the display. I set up workshops to generate public participation for the work. I believe in collaborations and readily enter in them, cross-disciplinary and otherwise. I have worked with authors, philosophers, composers, actors and vocalists. I’m interested in the animalistic aspect of humanity, sexuality, fear, valor and the instinct to survive and destroy. I’m interested human interaction with earth beings and the human/non human question. I'm interested in aural perception and the human voice, in language and in patterns. I’m interested in female reality.