Tacit Gaze: Raisa Foster and Arna Valsdóttir

This exhibition is the result of an excursion around the country relying mainly on non-verbal communication and perceptions. In our previous works, both artists had dealt with themes such as movement, voice, stillness, and silence in natural and urban environments. Both also share an interest in using the sense of touch to explore diverse subjects such as other living creatures, the forces of nature, buildings, and soil. Random encounters with moss, a hill, a cow, a horse, a bathtub, and an abandoned fish factory are presented at the exhibition as fragments of their journey.

We invite the audience to take a break from everyday life
by offering a sensory journey to

alternative landscapes and novel encounters. We believe
that art can offer new perspectives on

the
aspects of life that we often take for granted and no longer pay attention to.

Raisa’s artistic research in this project has been supported by Kone Foundation in 2017, Arts Promotion Centre Finland in 2018 and the KESTO project in September 2021. The exhibition is funded by Icelandic Visual Arts Fund, Icelandic Art Center, Akureyri Cultural Fund and Letterstedtska Foundation.

Raisa Foster (1976-)
is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar living and working in Tampere. Dr.
Foster has been focusing on the questions of ecosocial justice in the past
several years. Originally a dance practitioner, she combines her expertise in
body and movement with novel possibilities of digital media, creating
accessible but conceptually stimulating total works of art. Her performances
and media works have been exhibited in Finland, Iceland, Australia, Italy,
Mexico, Hungary, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the USA. Foster’s film
Sounds of Grey (2016) was an official selection of the Loikka on Tour program
in 2018—2019, and her video work Lupina (2016) is in the collection of Tampere
Art Museum. Foster has written several academic articles on the topics of
recognition, contemporary art, dance, and ecosocial education. She holds the
titles of adjunct professor in dance pedagogy (University of the Arts Helsinki)
and in social pedagogy, especially artistic research and practice (University
of Eastern Finland).

Arna
Valsdóttir (1963-) is an Icelandic artist known for
merging sound and image in her works, creating a conglomeration of music,
performance art, and image projection. Valsdóttir studied art at MHÍ (The
Icelandic College of Art and Crafts) and Jan van Eyck Academie in the
Netherlands, graduating in 1989. Her works are in the collections of Akureyri
Art Museum and Reykjavík Art Museum, and have also been exhibited in various
galleries and cultural locations in Iceland and abroad. Valsdóttir is the
director of the Heim Video Art Festival, which she has curated since 2015 in
collaboration with A! Performance Festival in Akureyri. Along with her art
practice, Valsdóttir has been teaching art since 1990. Currently, she teaches
at the art department of Akureyri Comprehensive College and explores video art
with students with disabilities.