Kristleifur Björnsson (IS)

Björnsson’s image based work is constructed both around his original photography and also images found on the Internet and in other public media. His work blurs the line between private and public, looking at how the culture industry and everyday life echo each other. While his work superficially seems to suggest a banal obsession, Björnsson is interested more in the power of images, the impact they have on our lives, and the apparent urgency with which they demand an immediate response. In one of the series on display the artist documents a one-year ritual in which he hung an image of Natalie Portman close to his bed wherever he stayed. Another series is based on repeated tracings of the face of actress Olivia Wilde with a pencil, while the third reveals a persistent gaze at a woman sitting on a bus.