(Slow) Working Day: The 6th Day in Reykjavik (2 July 2008)

I began the day at 8.30 a.m. with my breakfast. The heavy clouds seemed ready to release rain at any time. The cloudy weather was actually good for me, because it meant better to be inside and work.I first updated this blog and I thought that this would be my daily activity until the end of my residency (whenever the weather is not nice). 

I started working on my idea. The concept follows what I have worked in the previous series Paper World that material (paper string) metaphorically lives in the world. I continued the concept by thinking that paper string that is the product of the nature, or more precisely of trees, could be returned to its origin - the nature - in the original form of a tree. I also bridged the idea of creating a tree with the fact that Finnish nature is ubiquitous of trees, but my tree would be unlike others. Having been in Iceland for some days, I noticed that "real" trees are rare in this country. In the other words, trees don't seem to belong to Icelandic nature. There were only grass, flowers and small bushes everywhere I have been so far, but not any larger trees. Perhaps, the climate and the unpredictable weather prevent trees to grow large here. The strong wind make trees crooked and not straight. Seemingly, the nature here consists of only earth, air, fire, water, flora and fauna. This also explained why the country imported wood or even wooden houses from Norway.

I googled the keywords "Iceland forest tree" and found interesting info about forest in 36 European countries. While Finland has 70% forest covering the country, Iceland has only 0.3%! Interesting, isn't it? Among few species of trees native to Iceland, one of which is the birch. I also found on the internet that there is an attempt (and dream) to reforest in Iceland by the National Forest. Iceland might not no longer be a treeless country one day!

As Iceland seemed to lack of trees, creating a tree while I'm here then might conceptually contribute to the effort and challenge of the reforestation. On the other hand, as I came from Finland, the land of trees and forests, to create a tree made of the product of the Finnish forests - paper string - is to representationally bring part of the forests with which I'm familiar to Iceland.

I sketched and wrote on my little diary...

Then, at 1.05 p.m I unfolded the paper string I brought with me from Helsinki and started to cut the string into pieces, around 6 meter long. 

Starting to knot the trunk of the tree, it was extremely slow after I had not touch this material for over a year (I have worked with paper string in a bigger size though). I tried to regularly photograph the tree in progress (as part of documentation, of course!). The below photo was taken at 5.10 p.m.

At 8.40 p.m. ...

At 9.50 p.m. ...

At 10.20 p.m. ...

The end of the first working day was at 11.55 p.m. ...

Around midnight when I was about to go to bed, I saw the beautiful sky through the windows of the dining room.

Settling Down Day: The 5th Day in Reykjavik (1 July 2008)

Today was the moving day from central but noisy residence to a sea-front residence on Seljavegur. Kristin told me that we could go there around 2 p.m. So, I did update this blog in the morning. Now, I have everything up-to-date!

I prepared the move by dragging my suitcase down the stairs. Surprisingly, its wasn't as tough as dragging it up. I hope I didn't damage the stairs. 

Kristin called me sharply at 2 p.m. I was in a hurry so that I didn't have a chance to say good-bye to Sheryl. Well, it doesn't matter. 

Thankfully, Kristin drove me to the residence, meaning no walking and dragging the heavy suitcase. On the way, she told me that there would be altogether 5 female artists in this residence, almost all in the same age. When we arrived at the place, another artist was waiting. Her name is Jovanna from the US. She seemed very young.

I carried again my suitcase to the 3rd floor where the residence is. The rest of this huge complex functioned as studios for local artists. I got a two-room apartment, a room of which is a studio. The common kitchen and living room got the sea view.

I tried to settle down by unpacking my stuffs and putting  them into their places. Then, I walked to Kronan, a cheap supermarket nearby, against the strong wind. I dropped by at a hardware store and was fascinated by the selections. I found a variety of cooking grids for grills in different sizes and styles. As I haven't found any grid for my newly built grill, I thought I could buy one for it. Shopping food took long as I couldn't find some ingredients I usually bought in Helsinki. When coming back to the residence, I met Kristin and two other Irish artists, one is a man (I thought that Kristin might misunderstood the female-male foreign name). Anyway, the rest of the day devoted to cooking tortellini and updating the blog. Well, there was no point to go out because it had rained for the whole evening. The wind was so strong that I could hear very clearly the shaking street lamps. I didn't even dare to go out.