Icelandic artist Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir is drawn to detail. In her hands, a concern with the bigger picture is translated into a fascination with minutiae: the small, throwaway accessories of consumerism, for example, from signs to price tags and packing materials.
It is a fascination she has explored for the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024, in an exhibition titled ‘That’s a Very Large Number - A Commerzbau’, which also draws inspiration from ‘Merzbau’, German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters’ method of creating immersive collages from found materials. In works crafted from plastic toys and objects, and an installation made from a recycled floor panel from the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, Birgisdóttir uncovers capitalism in all its forms. Here, she reveals the process behind her work.
