Dagsverkin (A Day’s Work) is the title of a new art exhibition opening at 14:00 on Saturday 20th March 2021 in the Mjólkurbúðin exhibition hall on Listagil Art Street in Akureyri. The exhibition features work by textile artist Anna Þóra Karlsdóttir, which was produced in isolation last year during the Covid Global Pandemic. Some of the works were created on the Njala Trail, and others in Hjalteyri, Eyjafjörður, where she stayed in a Mongolian yurt.

The works are made from Icelandic wool, which Anna combes and separates herself. She only uses fine, down wool, which she dyes in a variety of shades, then layers in thin veils before felting into squares. If you look closely enough, you can make out the underlying colours through the upper layers. The results bring to mind nature, for example, the sky in all its diversity. Work, which on first appearances seems black, can be interpreted as the night sky overtaking the day, with undertones of purple and red showing through, just like the last rays of light during sunset. Another piece is reminiscent of a ground mist where the colours of nature are concealed beneath a subtle surface. In others, the mixed colours of dawn and dusk come to mind. 

The title of the exhibition, Dagsverkin, refers to the fact that each work took one day for the artist to create. It also refers to the sheer number of working days carried out over the years on the Listagil Art Street. The street once housed a slaughterhouse and all sorts of other thriving businesses, including a dairy, a paint factory, a soap factory, confectionary and soft drink factory, a bakery, a butcher, and not forgetting the headquarters of KEA (Cooperative Society of Eyjafjörður and Akureyri) and their main shop. 

Anna Þóra has enjoyed a successful career as an artist. She has held many solo exhibitions as well as taken part in several group exhibitions. Furthermore, her work has been selected for public exhibitions both abroad and here in Iceland: amongst others, in the textile retrospective Listþræðir, which was recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Iceland. 

Anna Þóra studied at both the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts and the Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. She has also undertaken art residencies abroad. She lived in Akureyri from 1977-1983 and taught at the Akureyri School of Visual Arts and Glerárskóli Elementary school.

 
Guðrún Erla Geirsdóttir, cultural representative.