Tag Archives: graffiti

A Missed Artistic Opportunity in West Iceland

So, you’re an artist and you meet a blank canvas under the volcano. What are you going to put on it?

On the Dagdeverðerá by Malaríf

This?

Granted, there’s not much light at the winter solstice, but, hey, you probably did it in the summer, so would you paint this?

Maybe if the original owners had been able to spray paint their love on their walls, they wouldn’t have given up in the gloom and moved to Canada.

Dump Your Unwanted Europe Here

The Icelanders are very clever. They put up a picnic site on top of the hill above Seyðisfjörður, to allow travellers to get their bearings after the steep climb out of the fjord and before the steep drop down into Egilsstaðir. That’s the kind part. The clever part is the picnic sign, as you can see.

See that? Travellers coming off the ferry from Europe get a chance to use up all their stickers at once, in one spot, and then that’s that. Done.

This is the height of summer. You might not want to linger long up here.

In Iceland, You Can’t Escape Gravity

They call gravity a fell here, or a fall. Often both at the same time.

You can’t escaping falls. The experience of gravity below is an example of what is called a hike. Anything less than this is called a walk. Don’t confuse the two.
Below is a walk. Walks are wet.  But gravity is a compensation! It’s good to keep your eye on it. Practice makes perfect.

In Reykjavik, gravity is still at work. I mean, the pot-smoking graffiti artists of Rome and New York and …? … aren’t issued ladders at customs. As a result, they walk from ground level.

Icelandic workers are better equipped to defy gravity.

 


They’ve been hiking, see. They know about falls. They’re everywhere. You can even fall off a road into the sea here.

Better get in some practice at balance. Off you go!


 

Iceland, the Do-It-Yourself Data Hub


1100 years of improvisation beats out the competition any time.

Too Many Clients to Have Time to Update Webpages!

But, don’t take it from me!

“Iceland is a highly competitive location for operation of Data Centres. Iceland has specialized in storage and disaster recovery for foreign companies offering a unique low-cost location for large International Data Centres low corporate tax and highly skilled IT labour. Iceland has built up a large-scale infrastructure that is very well-suited to meeting the new technological requirements of enterprises. This infrastructure has undoubtedly served as a major support for fast growth in the ICT industry and the fast adoption of technological solutions throughout society.”

http://www.made-in-iceland.com.cn/it/

Yeah, like that.  In Iceland, the whole country is wired.

Low Cost Solutions Abound!

” Iceland is a highly competitive location for operation of Data Centres. Iceland has specialized in storage and disaster recovery for foreign companies offering a unique low-cost location for large International Data Centres low corporate tax and highly skilled IT labour. “      http://www.made-in-iceland.com.cn/it/

Yeah!


Don’t let an economic collapse stop you. Just do it!

Those Nice Kids of Reykjavik & the Survival of the Sagas

No straying outside of the lines here! Out on the farm, though? Well, yee-ha!

Maybe it has something to do with a love of books in the city. Used books.

And their rural versions: sheep folds.

Melárett

Doubt it? Look again! Doesn’t look like a window anymore, does it:

It looks like Iceland: fields, folds, and books in one.

 

True Love in Reykjavik

The ideal woman of Reykjavik, c. 1400…
P1540907

Mary of the Hallgrímmskirja

Note that she is on life support with an artificial power source.

… and in the modernist period …

P1550132Woman at the Picnic Site

Still with a child. The houses in behind look like Nordhausen. Statues like this show up in Germany at nationalist sites, such as the Dornbürger Schlösser north of Jena. There, though, she has no child.

… and today …

P1550133

Green Party Election Candidate on a Bus Shelter

What a journey! There’s more …

greenGreen Party Window, Reykjavik

This an unfolding story. The oldest telling of it and the newest are still alive together at the same time. Look …
P1530638Adam’s Hotel for Travellers

Right by the Hallgrímmskirja, too.

At first, it looks like a clever pun, in the old Icelandic tradition, but look, right next door, in a passageway, amidst the tagging …

P1530643Green’s a great colour, but it’s the details that matter. Look inside that tag …

P1530644

Adam, we blush. In this context …

P1550124

See What I Mean about Nordhausen, that DDR ruin?

Maybe not. You had to be there in that DDR mining town abandoned by reunification, I guess.

Still, her beau is here…

stand

Adam? Is that You, Bro?

I wish the lovers well.