Arctic Creatures

Arctic creatures at the North Atlantic House

10 June 2023 - 10 Sep 2023

Welcome to Arctic Creatures. An artist group that brings high energy, humour and insight to address issues of the human relationship with nature, masculinity and plastic pollution through staged photography and sculpture.

The artists
Arctic Creatures is a collective of three Icelandic artists: visual artist Hrafnkell Sigurdsson, filmmaker and director Óskar Jónasson and actor/theatre director Stefán Jónsson. Over a number of years (2012-23), they have worked together on photographic works set in the Icelandic wilderness.

Performance and tableau
The artists themselves play the main characters in scenes that are equal parts comic and tragic, choreographed and staged using material, both litter and seaweed, found on site. The artists go out on a limb when, dressed in only the most basic of clothing, they take on the role of mythological creatures or seemingly paraphrase works of art history. It's gifted, theatrical and hysterical, and at the same time a climate-conscious salute to the fact that human beings are constantly being overtaken by their own iconceptions and their own filth.

The exhibition is generously supported by Knud Højgaards Fond and the Embassy of Iceland

A simultaneous exhibition of Arctic Creatures will be presented at Skaftfell Listamiðstöð Austurlands / Skaftfell Art Center, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, from May 06 - Aug 20, 2023.