Souls. Sculpture, 2012.
Cardboard box, water, text work.
Glaciers. Collage, 2012.
Magazines, ink, drawings, four-leaved clovers, text work.


The solo exhibition Essential was presented in Gallery Þoka (Icelandic word for ‘fog’) in 2012. The exhibition consisted of a sculpture made of a cardboard box and collage works. 

A large-sized, brown cardboard box was situated in the middle of the room. As in previous work, such as Collated (2011), words had been carved out and pulled back. The box was fitted with plastic in the bottom, and inside were gallons of water. The words on the box were upside-down, so that when the viewers looked inside the cardboard box, they could read the words against the surface of the water. The words are found in John 1:5: The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The collage works contained drawings, poetry, four-leaved clovers and various cover images taken from the science magazine Jökull (Icelandic word for ‘glacier’), which is dedicated to research on glaciers in Iceland. A recurrent theme in the collage works is the notion of essence, or a ‘core’ in human beings and countries. 

A catalogue containing writing and meditations on the words ‘core’, ‘essential’ and ‘soul’, was published for the exhibition.