Barbara Seiler

The work of Los Angeles based artist Heimir Björgúlfsson (1975, Iceland) deals with man’s relationship with his surroundings, nature, displacement and man’s character within human culture. How do we as human beings conquer nature, coexist with nature and, or bow under nature and our surroundings? Heimir Björgúlfsson takes nature as he finds it through the lens of his camera and creates new, often disturbing or threatening scenes by adding the various elements to collages: a group of cactuses conquering a run-down alley in downtown Los Angeles or a huge pinecone hovering above a gas station in the nowhere of the Mexican desert.

Heimir Björgúlfsson applies the same technique when working with sculptures. Instead of photographs he combines taxidermy birds, skeletons, butterflies or spines of an African porcupine with found objects. In „wisely spoken sentence“ a pigeon skeleton wearing the beak of a toucan crawls into the ear of a buffalo head mounted to the wall, or a small bird sitting on a bridge of chicken bones is protected only by a fine wire from an attacking hawk. These birds embody situations of man and nature coexisting under certain conditions created by their surroundings, ideological and cultural backgrounds.

Heimir Björgúlfsson is currently participating at the Light Art Biennale Ruhr 2010 (March 28 – May 27, 2010). His work has been presented in solo- and group-exhibitions in Europe and the United States, among others Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, IS (2010) and Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, NL (2006).