This is Rúf English Radio with Darin Adam, daily English language radio from Iceland's national broadcaster, Rúf.Hello, this is Rúf English Radio, my name is Darin Adam, thanks very much for your company today.Back in the museum and library building in Husavík and we're going to look today at the district art collection.Before we do though, my guest and my guide Nikola once again is going to take me through,essentially I guess a teaser for somebody who's of an artistic bent,because you can come to the library here, which is down the stairs,and you can see the exhibition which is currently on display, and this is the art of...This is the art of Sigvartur Karlsson.And this is open to everybody, isn't it?It is, so the museum in the building, we have the ground floor is open,accessible, people will pass through it, go to the library,so we like to have exhibitions here as often as possible,to get, you know, so people don't have to pay entry to the museum, they can see it.This work, I believe, will be here for the next couple of months,and it is by a man who was a local priest here in Husavík,so he's well known, and I believe this collection is sort of to honour his 40-year,anniversary of being a local priest.There's a real mix here, isn't there, of the abstract and also the figurative,so you go from these geometric shapes on the way in to landscapes and buildingsand birds as well, very traditional Icelandic scenes on the other side, so he did it all.Yeah, he does, yeah, there is, like, you're right, you've spotted it,like on this side, it's very abstract, modern, a lot of bright colours,well, I guess he uses a lot of bright colours anyway, but then he has a series,he has a series of paintings that represent Icelandic people,there is a farm woman, a fisherman, etc.,and then he's done some more modern with Icelandic food, and, yes.Bit of the Andy Warhols going on here, isn't there, with the peas,the can of green peas, and the Svali soft drink cartons,which have been pressed into service as well here.Yeah, the background of this,is some musical notation, I can't quite see what the,can you see what the tune is and how it relates maybe to Svali?No, I cannot, except, I guess, it's talking about, he's talking about drink, right,and this particular was, obviously, Svali was very popular, drink with kids.Can you still get Svali?I think it's, I think they stopped making it, and I believe so, yes.I remember it being available in the UK, weirdly, yes.Oh, I did not know that.Yeah, it's an early, early flirtation with Icelandic culture.I think it was a mini revolt when people, when they said they weren't, they weren't going to make it anymore.He really does have quite a range, then, as we have discussed,because you've got these beautiful landscape artworks,plainly someone who loved and was inspired by his country.Yeah, definitely, that's, yeah, and the church, of course,there is a picture of a church of Husavik,that's very famous, and then there are landscapes of the farms in this area.So, this exhibition is small, but perfectly formed, worth seeing, and it's free,so if you come to the library space downstairs at the Museum and Library building in Husavik,you can see this, and this runs, as you say, I think, for another couple of months.It does, yes, I believe so, yes.We always post that information, though, on our website.Okay, so what we're going to do now is make our way up the stairs,and we're going to head to the district.We're going to head to the district art collection, which is part of the museum here.You'll have heard some previous conversations about the Maritime Museum,and also the district and nature exhibitions, which are the two permanent exhibitions.This building, as well as housing the district art collection,also holds the district archives, as well,which I imagine are very interesting to a lot of people in their own way.Absolutely.In fact, one of my favorite stories from the local archivesconcerns the maunadýr.So we have a letter in our possessionthat tells a story of a local boywho was walking on the beach north of Husavik,and to his surprise, he saw...Imagine a fat, round, red, black, headless, terrifying pig.Oh, I was going to say, you sound like you're describing...Me?No.Steady on.No, I'm sorry.Yeah, I like to ask the children who visit what they think it could have been.Yes.I think, personally, you know, a lot of whales have washed up,have been beached near here,so it's not too far to, you know, the stretch of the imaginationthat that could have been, in fact, some part of a beached whale.You've even got three legs, I've just noticed, as well.Absolutely, yeah.Yeah.So add three-legged to the description I gave a moment ago.The odd little tail there that I think is quite frightening.But yeah, he drew a picture of itand then somebody wrote down his account of thisand then we found it in the archiveand, of course, had to tell that story to the...So this has been created from his eyewitness account,from the stories that he told in the District Archives.And you can see this creature, the creature of Mauna Farm.This is in the entrance to one of the first exhibitions that we looked at,the Nature and Daily Life exhibition.So have a look in there, as well, if you're at the museum.We'll continue going up the stairs to look at other works of artin the District Art Collectionand this is on the top floor of this interesting and rather beautiful buildingin Hrusavík.And we're having our conversation right at the very end of July.It's a bit wet today in the north of Iceland, the northeast of Iceland.It has, of course, been a lot sunnier in recent weeks.Are many people coming to visit the facilities just now?Yeah, and we, of course, always benefit from the many cruise shipsthat are in port.We do quite a few tours of the museum for cruise ship groups.But yeah, it's been a good summer so far.Into the District Art Collectionand there are various artworks on all of the walls here.Where would you like to start as we dip our toes into it?Yeah, so this is, right now, we're on the third floor, as Darren says,and we keep the third floor, basically,this space for rotating mostly art exhibitions.This particular exhibition just opened a week agoand it's called Atvík,which means, I guess, event or incident.It is by two artists,so it's a collaborative exhibition.The artists are Jónir Sína Arpjónstóttirand Gunnhildur Ingolstóttirand I believe that they are both local to this area.The theme of this exhibition is moments, events, collaborative local dialogue.So you'll see that a lot of them are watercolorthat represent Icelandic nature landscapes.And there's a harshness to them, which is very beautiful,and the kind of harshness that you don't normally see with a watercolor.You think of a watercolor being very pastel-y, very gentle.The way that these have been painted is much more angular and direct and clearer.Yes, and I think that she's done wonderswith the paint, the colors, the depth.You see it's blue, but then when you look,it's different types of blue.And I was struck when I saw this the first timeby the skies in those two paintings there.You don't really ever see watercolor as dark as that,as heavy on the page as that.No, but it is exactly howthe landscape is.Like if you drive outside of Húsavíkand you head down into Adaldalar,you know, you definitely see valleys like this.Very dark, deep blues.And I guess the other effect that you have looking at these,a lot of them feel like looking through a wet car windscreen, don't they?True, yeah, or through your window in a turf farm.Absolutely, yeah.But yeah, like I said, the colors of the sky,I see that and I'm reminded of winter again.Yes, you're looking forward to winter?You know, I actually do get tired of the daylight.So I do always welcome the darkness againuntil about January and then I'm done with it.And I'm ready for, I don't need it to be 30 degrees,but I'm ready for, you know.Well, the darkness is represented on this wallin front of us here with some of these artworkswhich are a lot darker than the ones that we have looked at.Sandsfjara is one example hereof a very typical black sand Icelandic beachwith a purple sky almost.Yeah, isn't that stunning?It looks like, it's not,but it looks like it could definitely be north of hereas you go round the bend on the way to Kopparskýrthrough Trutnesand you have the beach therewith all the driftwood.It's very, it's very reminiscent of that.It's not, of course, but it does look like that.With that sky, it could be not of this planet.Never mind.I mean, these two are gorgeous.Underwater.The northern, one is underwater,Níðan sjálfurand norðinus, of course, the northern lights.Almost photorealistic, that one.Absolutely, it is, yeah.As is the one next to it,which is of two houses next to a small lakewith some winter treesin the middle, Vaka þau enn.I believe these are by,these on this side are Gunnhildurand then those belong to Jónashína.Yes, there's a clear difference in stylebetween the two.Those over here, those black and white,almost look like photographs, black and white photos.Don't they, in a way?Because they're so detailedand the colours are,so different from the rest.It never ceases to amaze mewhat it's possible to dowith the Icelandic landscape artistically.I agree with youand we're really lucky that the museum,you know, we're not the largest museum in Icelandbut we do have quite a comprehensive art collectionthat we're able, of course, we store,we store them in a controlled environmentbut we are fortunate thatwe do get a lot of local artistsusing this room for exhibitionsbut that our collection also allows us toput together our own exhibitionsfrom our own artwork as wellwhich we do periodically as well.And so if somebody comes here to visitwhat we are saying is the museum,can they access all parts of this?Yes, so a ticket to theSjápna húset, museum house in Húsavíkcovers all the,covers all the exhibitions in this building.So, you know, people come up to the third floor,enjoy the art or photographyand then, you know, go down to seedaily life in natureand then of course finishin the Maritime Museum.So it's a great day out, you know,you can definitely spend a few hoursin this building.There's lots of,and I think there is something for everyone.I'm particularly interested in boatsbut I do like...I remember.Yeah, I do like to comeand I really enjoy the fact thatwe are committed toshowcasing local artistsas much as possible.Of course, you know, people do,we just finished an exhibitionby a man called Christopher Taylor.He's Britishbut I believe he lives in Francewith his Icelandic wifeand he had a photography exhibitionwhich was absolutely stunning.And I like the fact thatit's constantly changing here.You know, every few monthswe have another exhibit.So how long will these works be here?I believe they're also herefor the next few months.And then we typically have,we open a big exhibitat the beginning of Decemberalways for Adventwhich kind of like takes usover the winter periodand historicallywe have really trieda local connection.So last winterwe used this room foran exhibition we calledOh My Godand we usedthe many artefactsand items that we havefrom the local churchesin Þingjaður Sísla.You know, items that belong to priests.We had photographs of churchesand so that was herefor a few monthsthe year beforewe featured the personal collectionof a local manwho was the bank manager hereand when he passed awayhe donated his belongingsto the museumand we,so what I'm trying to say iswe really try to have a local slantbecause we really believe herethat this building belongsto the community.There's lots to seewhether you live herein the communityor whether you're visiting.It's a very welcoming townof course Húsavíkwith the Whale Museumand the Netflix Eurovision Museumand the various other attractions as well.Nicola for nowwe're going to talk againabout one of your own projectscoming towards the end of the year for now.Thank you very much.Thank you again, Darren.Thanks a lot.This is RÚV English Radiomy name is Darren Adamand you can get in touch with usany time we're Englishat RUV.isThere is more from RÚV Englishwith all the news from Icelandin Englishat RUV.isslash EnglishRÚV English Radiois a daily English language radiofrom Iceland's national broadcasterRÚV.
