ARTlines: three walking artists in Iceland

• Main Author: Lean, Patti
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Manchester University Press 2017
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9781784994396.003.0005

Artist Patti Lean gives an account in this chapter of a walking and camping tour of Iceland in the company of two other artists. The three artists, in sharing the experience of close contact with the sublime landscape of the island, each responded in their own way to produce art work. Lean’s art practice focussed on this compelling landscape, but all three artists also engaged with the rich Icelandic culture and the chapter includes discussion of writer Halldór Laxness, film maker Benedikt Erlingsson and artist Louisa Matthíasdóttir. The challenge for Lean is to reconcile her training in Art History and the associated narrative of the sublime, with the environmental concerns that she met during this tour, for example the failure of breeding for arctic terns as climate change has left too little food in the surrounding sea.