Periphery, the periphery of the images´ surface, the perimeter of the eye area, the perimeter of the explanatory and of the perceptible.

The periphery of objects marks the vision that underlies the visual experience that we have the sense to experience. The periphery also contains elements that are not obvious and go beyond the five senses that are most commonly used to define human beings. It depends on our individual experiences how many dimensions of our senses we consider to be our capacity, in order to experience the world and ourselves with, and in what ways we nurture and strengthen those capacities.

Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir’s works in her solo exhibition Periphery indicate that we posess more than five senses. They give us an insight into the magic and ability we have to weave together complex patterns of reality than we understand by logic, and thus thread ourselves in unpredictable ways into the future.

Here we are reminded of art´s capability of showing us what cannot be described by other media, depicting realities and dimensions that belong to the unknown future and thus moving us, step by step, forward in our own developmental process as sentient beings.

The title of the exhibition; Periphery, refers to the irrational area we see in the corner of our eye; shapes and colors in the background, on the fringes of the reality we experience. A visual sensory experience, when the mind is rested and trust is placed in the man’s astounding subconscious, is the essence of the exhibition and the process that Sigga Björg seeks to create.

Sigga Björg’s work has developed in quite new directions in recent years, although the medium she uses remains for the most part drawing. The visual language moves towards the abstract and thus a new imagery is created, which is, however, strongly connected to her previous works. Part of the development process is that color enters the works more strongly and the form dissolves to some extent. The colors in her recent works are sharp. The forms circulate around and morphe into each other. There are connections between them, structures that have their own internal laws that neither the artist nor the viewer can easily define. It is as if these inner laws might possibly become clear in a century´s time or when the human senses will have reached greater maturity.

Here shapes appear, which are given a kind of spatial framing in the drawing. In some cases flooring, in other walls, which give us an entrance into its spatial dimensions in such a way that we can identify ourselves, the body as capsule, with the space and the shapes we see on the image´s surface, whether in works on paper, on the walls or in a video work.

The works are made with ink, watercolor and pencil on paper and are the product of a work process where the drawing is used to explore the inner reality that appears on the periphery of human reality. Sigga Björg has long worked with animated media and has often shown video works with her drawings, as is the case in this exhibition.

Periphery is an exhibition that invites guests to enter into various dimensions of reality. A color-bomb that embraces the guest, framed by shapes that appear to us in symmetry, ephemerality and seemingly solidify and disappear. We are reminded of how the energy field of the human body can change in a split second, and here the energy-body is massaged in a graphical way, so that the effects can continue after the exhibition visit.

Reflections on the exhibition Periphery: Birta Guðjónsdóttir