THE SEERESSE'S PROPHECY

THE SEERESSE'S PROPHECY
December 2015- January 2016
Interventions for 5 bus stops in Suðurnes, Iceland.
Sizes. Din A0 and Din A2
Fresh Winds International Art Biennale. Garður, Iceland.


This project is based on the Poetic Edda called "Völuspá," "The Seeress' Prophecy." In this poem the Seeress converses with the Norse god Odin about the non-linearity of time. Telling the story of how she remembers the creation and the destruction of this creation, as well as its ever-new birth, she instructs the god of wisdom himself on the nature of infinity. Rendered by Snorri Sturlusson in the 13th Century, "The Seeress' Prophecy," (The poetic Edda, Translated by Carolyne Larrington, Oxford Press) is the foremost and best known of the Edda.

A series of interventions for bus stops in three towns in the Suðurnes area of Iceland—Reykjanesbaer, Garður, and Sandgerði. The interventions were made from phrases of this poem combined with digital photographs, which contain a chromatic aberration, an error that causes these digital images to appear different each time one accesses the file, creating a mass of uncontrollable pixels. Both text and chromatic errors were placed over photographs of the towns where the bus stops are located, creating a new series of images altogether.

These images were placed at bus stops, so that any bus user a could c travel in a poetic map spread around their usual territory.

The pieces suggest the presence of impossibilities and poetics and represent the unpredictability and uniqueness of every single moment: the elegant dance of the
universe. Excerpts from the Seeress' Prophecy displayed at selected bus stops:

1. Garður Bus Stops:

There was no sand nor sea
nor cool waves
earth was nowhere
nor the sky above.
Throw her right hand round the sky’s edge;
the moon did not know what might
he had.
Do you want to know more: and what?
A captive she saw.


2. Sangerði Bus Stops:

Sun did no know where she had her hall
This text was displayed with images from the US military base, located a few
miles from the area, which is no longer in use. The bases are shown slowly disappearing
for good.

3. Reykjanesbaer Bus Stop:

There stood grown—higher than the plain, slender, and very fair
—the mistletoe.
She sees, coming up a second time,
earth from the ocean, eternally green;
the waterfalls plunge
there comes a shadow-dark dragon.