SLANG (-Y)

Sara Riel

March 9 – June 2, 2013

Halla Björk Kristjánsdóttir

Artist have been known to challenge the existing conventions of art. Similarly slang moves from the established language and a new vocabulary emerges from foreign words and unusual word formation. Slag usually belongs to a certain group of people and especially the younger generation. Originally it is used as a creative mode of expression but tends to become the established spoken language. Through history new art movements have been created in the same way.

Sara Riel´s works in this exhibition were made in 2006 and are rooted within the graffiti culture. Modern graffiti was developed by the rebellious youth of the 1970s and today it is one of the most popular movements in art history. Numerous artists from all over the world work within the movement. The culture surrounding graffiti is rough and male-dominated, characterized by competition, aggressive and active attitudes and honour. The goal is to tag or bomb large areas and leave as much behind as possible but it is not uncommon for graffers´works to be crossed or buffed. The artist who manages to graff and tag the biggest area is considered a hero and receives the much sought after title, “All-City King”. Challenges and risks are necessary elements of this creation of art but graffiti works are usually displayed in public spaces without consent of authorities. They are therefore considered questionable forms of artistic expression and are often treated as vandalism. From the beginning the movement´s aim was to keep its art creation away from the while walls of museums and galleries. In that way the artists thought they had an even easier access to the public to convey their message and display their art.

After staying abroad for an extended period of time and being an active member of an international street movement Sara has created a name for herself within the scene of international graffers and street artists. She continued to develop her art when she returned to Iceland, going back to nature and the countryside like her predecessors sometimes did after their studies abroad. There she managed to mark her territory and created in her own comic way a reputation for herself in Iceland as an “All-Country King”. Her choice of location differed from the ideas that graffiti should be done within the public spaces of the city. The places she chose were also more or less dilapidated. Most of them were in fact foreign objects in nature without any real purposes. Sara graffed certain slang terms on the place she chose with regards to the locations and world meaning instead of using her name (Name-Fame) which is more common when marking territories.

On her travels around the world she noticed certain words that she was well familiar with as slang in Icelandic. These words such as heavy, happy and nicely had also been incorporated into various other languages. For her slang thus represented a symbol of unity rather than a threat to the language, a way to understand others and to make yourself understandable. In addition to experimenting with typography and colours in the making of these works Sara looked at the meaning of the worlds and sought to bring forth the emotion they entailed. More often that not the words took on more than one meaning. For example, the world lousy in the same titled work describes the poor condition of the house but also the feeling that comes with seeing the neglected state of the house.

Despite placing her work on objects of no value, ones that even blemish the environment, the works themselves were considered to be vandalism.

Seven years later the result of this work is displayed here. In the form of photographs these pieces have become part of a series based on slang, graffitied on various places in the Icelandic countryside. Represented thus the works become conceptual art and quite far from the ideology of graffiti which they were originally derived from. The process for the works depicts the artist´s own creative process relating to academic knowledge and interest in classical art. By removing the works “from the street” and placing them within the walls of the museum she points out how controversial art can be. Thereby questioning preconceived notion of location, art movement and language and giving them new meaning.

Curated by: Halla Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Inga Jónsdóttir and Sara Riel.

About the artist:

Sara Riel (1980) graduated from the art department at Breiðholt College (Fjölbrautaskólinn í Breiðholti), studied at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2000-2001 and the Academy of Art Berlin (Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee) 2001-2006 where she studied for a a Masters Degree during the last year. Sara has received various acknowledgements; a graduation award from Breiðholt College, a DADD gran awarded to foreign students in Germany for outstanding academic achievement, a grant from the Svavar Guðnason – Ásta Eiríksdóttir Foundation, a grant from the Guðmunda S. Kristjánsdóttir Memorial Fund (Erró) and three times she has been granted the Icelandic Artists´Salaries Fund. Sara has been noticed as an artist in particular for her street art work in Reykjavík and other cities around the world. She has participated in several exhibition both here and abroad and exhibited her work in distinguished galleries including Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, Scio Gallery LA, Tokyo Wondersite and Reykjavík Art Museum. In addition she has worked on album covers and recently she drew all the figures for a plan analysis app that was developed for mobile phones and iPads. Sara is a member of the Reykjavík Sculpture Association and the international street art gang Big Geezers.