Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir aka Shoplifter Chromo Sapiens 2019
Chromo Sapiens was Iceland’s 2019 Venice Biennale contribution. The Venice Biennale is kind of like the Eurovision or Olympics of contemporary art. Countries select an artist and curator to represent them in Venice and there’s a jury who award prizes to the national pavilion that they like the best. In 2019, Lithuania won with Sun & Sea (Marina) which was essentially a full on opera preformed on a man made beach. Now, to be fair to them, I didn’t see it. But I DID see this big fluffy room from Iceland.
It’s made of hair extensions which is a bit odd in theory BUT it felt like a warm, welcoming cave made by a fun art teacher. I feel like I could have spent hours in there. It was cosy and colourful and just pure joy. Maybe the opera was good. I just don’t think it could have made my inner 8 year old this happy.
I am reading a book about AI and the future robot friends we’re going to have. It’s a good book and an easy read (called Klara and the Sun for those interested) but it does kind of make me feel as though Furbys were way ahead of their time. Where did Furbys go? I wouldn’t mind intelligent robot beings if they looked more like Furbys and less like the living hell that Tesla has just put out photos of. Actually, now I’m thinking of it. Why haven’t they made Alexa / those Google Home things look like cute little furry friends? Maybe it’s a bit creepy. It should at least be an option though. This is my dragons den pitch.
Congrats you’ve made it to the end! Todah Rabah.
Eleanor x