Debora Alanna - Hybrid: Lava & Light - 2013 residency and exhibition in Akureyri Iceland

Selected works produced in the
Akureyri Artists Studio Residency
With studio work at Punkturrin in Rósenborg
Hybrid: Lava & Light
[solo exhibition]
Populus Tremula Gallery
June 2013
Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora Alanna 1

I am a hybrid, and love my
heritage, my Icelandic roots,
connections with my mother
and her family lineage.
Travelling, working in Iceland
in 2013 seemed vital to learning
more about the depths and
mystery of my heritage through
contact with the place my
ancestors came from.
Lava and light became catalysts
for my adventure and inspired,
prompted subsequent work.

I first learned about Iceland through my grandparents, my mother’s parents. Ingibjorg,
my grandmother sang Icelandic sagas from memory, a capella, taught me Icelandic
folklore and nourished me with Icelandic food.
Thorvalder, my grandfather was a storyteller. He employed folk remedies. In my
childhood, Grýla was always lurking, and other huldufolk afforded mischievous
antics to admire.
Dreams were symbols and messages evoking Icelandic confidence. It seems I was in the
midst of ancient Icelandic influence progressing into conceptualization through my
art, which I addressed in new work, in Iceland.

Hybrid: Lava & Light © Debora Alanna
Extended family, cultural heritage
provided a continuity of familial
spirit during my residency in
Iceland.
4

My grandmother, Ingibjorg pictured here
at aged 20 something dominated my
thoughts and working process while
in Iceland.

Akuryeri is a city
situated in
Northern Iceland
where many artists
live and work. The
town afforded a
beautiful, vibrant
setting to work in
residence.
Welcomed by
new
colleagues,
visiting the
town’s
amenities, I
felt inspirited
to work in
new ways .
6

My juried residency
at the Akuryeri Artists Studio
(Gestavinnustofa Gilfélagsins / Gil Society)
in Akureyri Iceland
was central, comfortable and
availed ample space to work.

Hybrid: Lava & Light ©
Debora Alanna
Work produced during
Akureyri Iceland
June 2013
8

Through my childhood I was in the
midst of ancient Icelandic
influence progressing into myth
and poetics through abstraction
and figuration through my art,
which I began to address in
new work, in Iceland.
This is the first drawing I made
during my Akuryeri residency
at the Akuryeri Artists Studio:
http://artistsstudio.blogspot.ca
/2008/01/guest-studio.html
Huldufólk is an image of the hidden
people that occupy Iceland’s
folklore. I felt their presence
first during a visit to Árnes
prior to my residency.
Hybrid: Lava & Light
© Debora Alanna
Graphite on paper
9

Hybrid: Lava & Light became a
month of accessing Icelandic
poetics, forces of culture and
sensibilities. My ardent plunge
into my surroundings and
heritage, my psyche required
wielding this fabulous tool to
hone in on Icelanders’ natures,
Icelandic forms and cadences. I
was able to bridge the deep lore
and imbibe Icelandic intrigue
thorough my residency. I
needed to use this device to
alight on and extract, articulate
the vastness about me. I
implemented my machination
with this grapple.Dry pastels on paper

Icelandic light was pervasive during my
June residency. All vegetation
seemed consumed by the light’s
power, its sustained brilliance. My
colour palate, previously fairly
muted, suddenly burst forth with
glorious intensity.
This work addresses the deep shadows
that occurred with the continuous
sun shine.
The work addresses the burning of
desire, the shadows of isolation and
its release, allowing colourful
munificence, a generosity of spirit
that grows from the Jungian
archetype, shadow, that
acknowledges the primitive sexual,
assertive, sometimes quarrelsome
instincts.
ink, acrylic, water soluble wax pastels on paper
11

I began to connect with my cultural
source, with Iceland and its people,
the origins of my culture and its
complexity in present time. I began
to assimilate Icelandic strength and
diversity. Icelanders have specific
insight, fierce autonomy and I am
proud of my heritage.
Leaning, the predilection to favour or
rely on an idea allows an inclination
to some slant, that might fall short,
or separate from the hold on the
thought, allowing the trespass of
wonder, a space where cursive lines,
articulated space evolves into a
conflicting but vigorous space for
contemplation.
12

Iceland, its people, the land
urged me to consider the
poetics of space, Iceland’s
physical and emotional
space.
Walking in often windy
weather, the I began to plot
the path from here to there,
the Akureyri streetscape as
a sensory manifestation.
My route to the grocery store,
via the liquor store became
a visual poem of wind
blown enjoyment.
Hybrid: Lava & Light ©
Debora Alanna 13

Summer remembers winter shows the
incongruity of memory, how
seasons clash and retain their
presence throughout all seasons.
Looking up the street from the Akueryri
Artists Studio residence, buildings
seem to retain a memory of snow
and ice, of cold, winter’s substance.
The transitory experience of seasons,
phases defined by weather or life
stages does not escape memory’s
retention and consequential layers
of flurry and storm, glistening
splendour, seasonal advantages and
attractions. This work translates
some of this memory processing.
patching compound, acrylic,
water soluble wax pastels on paper
14

In Iceland, lava fields are new and old. This
is a photograph taken in an old moss
covered lava field near where farmers
keep horses. The summer green
mounds are lush and flagrant in their
barefaced exposure, manifesting the
original, but worn lava undulations.
I sat on this lava field prior to working in
the Akureyri residency.
15

Work practices were
transformed by Iceland’s
physicality.
Iceland’s valiant potency and
fortitude determined how
I followed through with
my project, evolving
poetic Icelandic
intangibles into
transformative work –
converting Icelandic
energy through my art
practice.
Sitting on a lava field allowed
me an integration within
the influence of lava, its
discharge, its eventual
land formation and
acceptance, and felt the
resolve of Iceland’s people
to continue to live and
thrive on lava landscapes.

Water through the Eyjafjörður bay, delta afforded access to Akureyri from the North
Atlantic ocean. This water, the terrain of the whales, water birds and fish
banked Akureyri with a turbulence, accessing food, bringing the Northern
community prosperity of tourism.

Reflecting on the Eyjafjörður water and
surrounding mountains, reading
Icelandic myths and legends,
basking in the sun day and night, I
became the subject of my own myth.
Cartooning has not ever been a part of
my art practice. I had not painted
much prior to this residency.
Suddenly, I am depicting humorous
situations , symbolic and wry,
living and working characterized in
any of the Icelandic sagas or eddas.

This photo looks down at the residency studio building, centre,
just behind the parking lot after the curve in the road. The
residency door is on the far right. You can see the skylights
on the flat roof of the studio, to the right of a green
embankment. Beyond you can see the Eyjafjörður bay with a
cruise ship docked in its harbour.
19

Walking, too along the Eyjafjörður river
delta, along side mountains in
every direction, I began to sense
apparitions.
This creature followed me all the way
back to the residency studio from a
nearby hillside.
The work is a huldefolk visage, with its
consternation. The work is a
presentiment of its discomfort.
Foreboding, and a little menacing, it
is a portrait of a staunch creature of
the night. Summer nights in Iceland
is bright, and the creature’s
trepidation at being found out is
apparent and captured in the work.

Working in June, the sun was nearing and entered the summer solstice. This photo was
taken of the 3am sky, with pink colouring the single cloud in an otherwise clear
blue sky on the 21st of June. The sustaining of light affected huldefolk antics. My
thought processes embraced the antics and light, separately and together.
21

Sleeplessness, with not
remembering or
realizing what time of
day I was working in
played on my
imagination, affected
the subject and
treatment of
figure/subject and
colouration of my
work.
Mischief is the
waywardness of the
huldefolk, their antics
in combination with
the Icelandic
landscape and solstice
sun, gleaned when I
was sleep-awake.

During the course of my
residency I developed a
tooth ache. This is how
my toothache felt before
dental surgery.
A different kind of mischief...
Acrylic, plaster bandage, ink, water soluble wax pastels
23

Self portraiture serves to offer me insight
into how I am feeling at any given
moment. Here, I show my ideas are
brewing, post tooth surgery.
This portrait depicts me as a teapot, a
character I assumed when performing
in a figure skating presentation as a
child.
Childhood memories are strong and
enduring. Juxtaposing my love of coffee
(within the title), with my adult self
living and working in Iceland seems to
show how I can maintain the childlike
joy at playful caricature while working
to expend significant considerations.
To me, the drawing of the neck and collar is
sculpture ideas hearkening.

A self portrait, embodying the
huldefolk as self allowed me to
emotively respond to the
Icelandic myth and lore.
I am utilizing a similar colour palate
to the work in the previous
slide. However, the treatment
of the self image is entirely
different.
The emotional intensity experienced
working in Iceland manifests as
flame.

This work is my growing intensity
through my dwelling within
Icelandic sensibilities,
exploration, discoveries about
its people and the land that
spoke to me.
Feeling that I was extending,
stretching my intuitive and
objective self, I accepted the
stretch as a significant
opportunity to exert a brighter
and enjoyable colour palate, a
figurative departure, allowing
the power of each insight to
manifest as constructs of
emotion with pensive outbursts.
26

A transition occurred in my work during the Akureyri residency. I began to leave the literal and
mythologized concepts and work with ideas that translated the environment to new
experiences, feelings, thoughts that had no previous definition.
These works became haptic spaces.
28

This work reveals my
unconscious response to the
Icelandic environment,
delving into its land
composition influence.
My colour palate is consistency
hot. Although the blue
skies, blue mountains, blue
water was all around me,
reds, oranges, intense
colours emerged as my
colours of choice, of how I
felt about the unspoken
sensibilities of the Icelandic
psyche, my psyche in
relation to where I was,
what I was experiencing.
29

My mother, Jona was nicknamed
Crow, being very white blonde,
and mischievous in her youth.
Her presence was alive during
this residency.
The title of this work refers to an
Icelandic tale that originates
from Vestmannaeyjar (the
Westman-Islands), where my
grandmother lived. Villborg
was a woman kind to ravens
and one saved her from a
landslide because of her
kindness. My mother became a
nurse, and was aptly
nicknamed, allegorically.
30

Inevitably, my residency in Iceland
became a mental visit to other
residency experiences.
Memories of my residency in
India, and an amalgam of the
mythological Hindu imagery
(Kali, goddess of
empowerment, Hanuman
(monkey), Shiva’s avatar ,
Kali’s consort, a symbol of
physical strength,
perseverance and devotion)
with Freya’s story, where she
is taken hostage (goddess of
sex, fertility, war, and wealth)
combined into this work.
The garden the work takes place in
seems to have shrunk to
Bonsai size.

Investigating and integrating Icelanders’ thought process, their understanding of life
into new work, within the opportunity available through the Akureyri Artists
Residency program, I began reflecting on my past in new ways.
Street art – Akureyri. Artist unknown.
Photo by Debora Alanna
32

Studio life involved living
to work with the aid of
constant light to confuse
and sustain work -
forgetting to sleep, a topsy
turvey existence where
work was dominant and
continuous.
33

Dwellings and especially the
relationship people have to
what they value, delving into
time through narratives allows
seeing, converting the tender
tangibility of these poetic
experiences into my work.
Although this work was initially
based on a pillow on the
residency couch, when Jackson
Pollock’s spirit visited, it
required a prop up. This pillow
painting is the cushion
between historical reference
and wild imaginings in my
Iceland residency.
34

Pragmatic wires across a
swan pond near the
public pool instilled
an uneasiness, a
brooding impediment
argufying civilized
constraints.
Most works in this series
could be reconfigured
for larger works in
acrylic or oil. This
work, although it
captures the swan
park seems to be a
notation for a further
treatment.
35

Shapes, forms and shadows are
strongly featured in my work.
Shapes that delineate or contour,
forms that hold, structure and
perform as the essence of what
has been shaped. Shadows work
as interception, influence,
mirrors.
This work shapes emotional responses
to planetary concerns of
pollution, its impact on our
shared oceans and air, its affects
on people in the global
community. The forms within the
work transfigure human features,
and foreshadows the loss of
planetary integrity, an human
foibles that choose to engage in
harmful exploits, actions that
devastate on our planet.

My awareness of Icelandic sensibilities
were enhanced through accessing
intimacy of place - Iceland’s
landscapes.
Lots of streams and rivulets, waterfalls
worked their way down from the
nearby mountains.
This work is about a waterway running
up, a reverse motion to natural,
existing waterways.
Shown is the creative act, how going
against the flow, inverting
presumptions of normalcy results in
transposing thoughts, charging the
physicality of place, the human
experience with a converse course.
Connecting the source of flow with
the sky illustrates the connectivity
possible through the emerging
synergetic current.

June, the month of my residency
was dominated by the ever
present sun.
Sun of the day of the sun sun day
shows how the sun moved
around the sky above,
fulsome, changing its quality
and position a little by the
hour but remained ubiquitous.
The sun’s sphere, its glow became
a sculptural entity, more than
light, more than a orb in the
sky. Each hour’s sun married
itself to the next, where the sky
lost its presence when
cloudless. The sky was almost
always cloudless, with the
prevailing sun circling, ever
immediate.
Dry pastel on paper
38

In preparation for beginning sculpture work, I did a flurry of drawing on 6 x 8” paper
with dry pastels, the same medium as in the previous slide.
Sculpture forms, ideas began to surge, some seen in this selection of drawings.
39

Part 1: Landscapes
When the mountain divides the sun and the moon
Leaning
Cleave
Eyeing
When the sun is held by the sky and the land
Akureyri Iceland
June 2013
40

Artist colleague
Gunnar Kr Jónasson
kindly offered a bag of
Styrofoam remnants to
work with. Using an
incising knife I found
in a drawer and rasps
brought with me, I
was able to cut and
shape a set of works I
collectively called
Landscapes.
Process...
42

Einar Jónsson (1874-1954) was a
relative on my grandmother’s side of
the family. I was happy to visit his
house turned museum of his work in
Reykjavik prior to my residency. I had
seen photographs of his work in
catalogues my relatives had collected
over the years.
Jónsson’s sculpture felt deeply part of
my psyche. Experiencing them
showed me a dimension of my art
practice that is inherent and profound,
connected to who I am as an artist.
Working in white, the Styrofoam
allowed a succinct translation of
Iceland’s landscape that connected
with Jónsson’s sensibility.
43

Struck by the variety of
mountain formations, what
was as thrilling was seeing
the sun and the moon
together in the sky, once
between a mountain peaks
of a mountain range. This
image translated to this
sculpture.
This work is also showing how
the mountainous can be
balanced by the enormity
of light and how
reconfiguring dimensions
can allow playful interplay
in lives lived.
44

Leaning is not a freestanding work. It must be
propped against a wall or a edifice,
structure. The work presupposes a need
for or dependency of something else for
its existence. It is essentially autonomous.
The lean of Leaning is critical to its
display.
The work is a vertical turbulence connected to
a sharp, steep curve to around its back.
The vertical is a longing to the upper
stratosphere, a movement of hope and
aspiration. The curve is the grounding ,
an intrepid arm of encouragement.
Together, the expectant optimism and
assurance are not enough. The
composition slants towards, is sustained
by otherness.

The word, cleave means to split, penetrate, divide as in a cleft, disassociate, divide,
segment, as a clove. The word also means to adhere, be faithful, hold together. Cleave (a
conversation) employs the duality of the meaning.
Conversations have many characteristics, depending on who is engaged in the action. This
work suggests the character of a conversation showing to entail separate component
bound to connect and yet diverge.
46

Eyeing is about how the land and the
viewer correlate. The viewer
integrates their spirit with land,
blends their awareness with the
immensity of the land. The land
envelops the viewer.
In this work, the land emulates, takes on
the characteristics of people that
acknowledge its presence. The land
becomes an organ of sensation.
Eyeing is a recognisable integral of
land liveliness.
Eyeing demonstrates how the symbiotic
affects people and place as witness
and overseer through reciprocal
sentience.

I experienced expansive skies and
vast surrounding waters that
fused with mountain ranges.
The vistas seemed to hold the
perpetual summer sun during
my residency. Sun, the orb,
seemed to be embraced,
cleaved to by the sky that
merged with the waters
amalgamated with mountains
in their monochrome, clinging
to one another as a unifying
association. The sun, central
and ever present formed an
attachment between the
advancing, enfolding and
encircling natures of its
surrounds.
48

Punkturrin is a community creative centre. Akureyri residents come to the ground floor studios to
learn about and make ceramics, weave and undertake knitting projects, slump glass and
participate in other crafting endeavours.
Using the studio and kiln as a guest to make glass sculpture was assisted by their craft leaders.

Punkturinn (the Point)
is a community
crafts facility, a
series of public
craft studios
located in the
lower level of the
Rósenborg
building, centre of
social and human
rights.
Icelandic Eye(s) was
produced and
fired in the glass
studio.
Technology assistance
was provided by
artist and glass
technologist
Ragney
Guðbjartsdóttir.
51

Akureyri Iceland
June 2013
Part 2: Icelandic Eye(s)

Learing Punturrin existed, I visited the facility to
discover a kiln and assistance to make
Icelandic Eyes.
5 moulds were made. Carving wet plaster mixed
with a hardener enabled 5 unique sculpture
formations.

Using a circle cutter, cutting
glass from a single
sheet to prevent kiln
breakage.
The circles were further cut
to develop texture on
the final kiln fired
work.

Tapping out the circle shapes
after incising sheet.
Organizing and
assembling cut glass.
55

Smashing lava to make centres for
Icelandic Eye(s).
Experiment (sample) to
ensure lava would not
explode in kiln. Lava
fragment sandwiched
between 2 pieces of
glass fired prior to
sculpture construction.

Icelandic Eye moulds dry and ready for
glass treatment.
Icelandic Eye –
prepped in mould
with lava centre
(pupil).

Icelandic Eye (s) in kiln
ready to be fired.
Icelandic Eye (s) – prepped in
mould before firing.
The glass on the moulds
was fired for 24 hours.

Once the glass on the
moulds has fired and
cooled for 1-2 hours,
moulds are broken to
remove the glass, and
ensure each sculpture is
unique.
59

Displayed on green velvet, 5 kiln fired glass
slumped over hand carved moulds with lava
centres formed Icelandic Eye(s).
Stage lighting arranged behind the installation
further enhanced the work.
65

Part 3: The World is Askew
~ an installation.
66

Maybe it was the constant summer equinox light that triggered this work – perhaps the
light component, the spheres of light within the work. Maybe it was being on
ancestral land, going back and going forward in time the allowed the constructed
waves above the main structure to vehemently undulate. Maybe it was the
realisation of returning to a place held as a dream by my mother, grandparents that
allowed the dream-like glow of the work.
Maybe it was being in the midst of a place where culture thrives in spite of isolation, a
country that seems bare but is redolent with life that began the thoughts of
variance within the work. Maybe it is the honouring of stories that live luxuriously
in the hearts and minds of its citizens that allowed the wafting of texture.
Maybe it was my growing awareness of environmental acuity in a place where
geothermal energy is coveted world wide, where harvesting the fish is still
possible, where imported food is still prevalent that initiated the triangular forms,
teeth of a monster jaw, a whale of indentation.
Maybe it is because in spite of strengths that Icelanders as world citizens appreciate and
share in their abundance, there is a quiet disturbance felt by everyone in this
country, shared by many in other countries. Concerns of environmental abuse
discomfit. Strained political relations generate detrimental outcomes and warring
factions. Ancient lessons are ignored or dismissed as irrelevant or impossible.
Enough, plenty is contrasted with a scarcity of sense, fear. The world is askew.

Outside the residency door, large
swaths of vinyl, yellow plastic
tape, 2 x 2” wood lengths were
awaiting recycling, remnants of
a builder’s job.
Found material seemed integral to
the work. I was delighted to
find material I could use right
outside the residency door. It
seemed to be waiting for
harvest.

Utilizing found materials seemed
appropriate and applicable to my
thoughts about, need for making an
installation at the Populus Tremula, an
integral component of Hybrid: Lava &
Light.
Found material has a long history that I
have not easily adopted. I felt I needed
to transgress previous work practices to
enable a diagonal thought trajectory.
Using found material formed oblique
transverse work to connect with
disparate thoughts.
The main studio space had adequate
room to lay out the wood. I found
mismatched hinges to join lengths of
wood to each other.
69

Framing the work began by joining the
lengths of wood, awry. No joint was to be
true. No length of wood level.
70

Swaths of vinyl were
washed, laid out on the
floor to plan how they
were to be used within
the work.
Some round cuts had
been made in one piece
of vinyl. Developing
these cuts seemed
integral to the work.
71

Circles were fortified
with found yellow tubing
spliced to extend the
segment lengths.
Plastic bags were split to devise portholes,
apertures to the light that would be projected
within and through the work.
72

Back view of
The World is Askew.
The reverse (unexhibited
view) of the vinyl
stapled to the frame, the
plastic glued to the
apertures and draped
from the top mast is
drying in these views.
A blue plastic swath
was stapled to the
very top,
undulating as a
queasy feeling.
73

Top detail view:
The World is Askew.
Detail of a carved
Styrofoam insert.
74

Special thanks to my family & all the
friends & colleagues that encouraged me
to embark on this residency adventure,
promoted my project among their friends
and colleagues to enable funding to
travel, make work and show in Iceland.
Thanks to everyone who
attended my exhibition
in person and online!

During my Indiegogo campaign, the following people (in alphabetical order)
donated to enable my residency and exhibition, provided the means to travel
to Iceland, work and produce Hybrid: Lava & Light.
YOU ARE STARS!
1. Anonymous x 4
2. Glenn Alteen (Canada)
3. Bruce Esplin (Australia)
4. Candace Forbes (Canada)
5. Roy Green (Canada)
6. Gaetano de Gregorio (Italy)
7. Jane Hsiaoching Wang (USA)
8. James K-M (Canada)
9. Nancy Masson (Canada)
10. Kaethe Sabr (Canada)
11. Richard Streitmatter-Tran (Vietnam)
12. Jillian Player (Canada)
13. Susan Pyne x 2 (Canada)
14. Chris de Vries (Canada)
80

Special thanks to:
Sérstakar þakkir til:
Gyða Bergþórsdóttir & Mundi / family
Guðrún Jóhanna Guðmundsdóttir & Jóhannes / family
Ragney Guðbjartsdóttir
Sigríður Erna Ingólfsdóttir
Gunnar Kr Jónasson
Aðalsteinn Svanur Sigfússon
Kristján Pétur Sigurðsson
Bessi Skírnisson
Akureyri Artists Studio - Gestavinnustofa Gilfélagsins á Akureyri - Gil Society
Ásprent
Menningarráð Eyþings
Punkturrin
Populus Tremula
81

Debora Alanna - Hybrid: Lava & Light - 2013 residency and exhibition in Akureyri Iceland

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