THE NORDIC ART REVIEW nu: VOL. II NO. 2/00.

nu: introduces Radhildur Ingadottir

IMAGINE A JOURNEY in space where the planets are arranged like rings of mother-of-pearl. The journey starts at Radhildur Ingadottir´s exhibition at the gallery oneoone in Reykjavík – but it should be mentioned that it would take 206 years to reach Neptune this way. I am enchanted along with Radhildur by the natural form of imagined space travel.
In the exhibition Radhildur uses the horn of a unicorn, drawn with blue dots, to illustrate an imagined space odyssey. An unidendified, mineral-like material lies spread out on the floor and there is a partially concealed drawing of a wondrous spaceship in a windswept magnetic field, blown by solar winds to the outer margins of the universe.
Hip,hip hurrah!
Radhildur places us in a cosmological context where we simultaneously become a tiny particle and part of the expanse of the galaxy. One might say that she manages to represent what George Lukács called the “metaphysical homelessness” of the modern person. Her work is a kind of ode to the imagination and it seems that the imagination has the propensity to spiral its way through the solar system, coiled like the horn of a unicorn, swirling like water as it is sucked down the drain according to gravitational magnetic forces. Somehow it is not suprising that in her next project she intends to work with a young techno-musican that calls himself Biogen. There is in fact a sort of adventurous, featherlight music in Radhildur´s work, a kind of involuntary song from the open heavens that connects the celestial galaxy with nature, lending a bold purpose to human awareness. One of her works in progress involves the graceful loops of the planets. Yes, if we examine the movements of the planets, it looks like they are revolving in their orbit around the sun. The loops are caused by a fault in the earth and the other planets; they are imaginary, but that makes no difference. Every time a planet rotates its way past Earth and around the sun, Radhildur sends her friends and acquintances all over the world a letter with astrological information. The letters are programmed so they will continue to be sent beyond death, for it takes the outermost planet, Neptune, 165 years to complete such a loop.
Radhildur has been quoted as saying that her work is based on a flood of ideas that take on a particular shape and then are left to the receiver. It is safe to take her at her word. Guests at the exhibition in oneoone had the choise of visiting the show wearing blue polka-dotted dresses and jackets, connecting them to the drawings on one of the exhibition walls. Radhildur´s work not only reaches out to us beyond death, it also reaches out from the walls of the gallery.

Hjalmar Sveinsson