Gabriela Fridriksdottir & Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney exhibits in the east and west wings of the Akureyri Art Museum, at the centre of which is Fri©£riksdóttir's installation. The brown colour covering her space flows into Barney's, thereby connecting them. At this brown intersection, the artists have their works in close proximity, creating a conversation between the artworks and emphasising the similarity in their languages.

They both use video to enable them to show the audience things in motion, things that would be difficult to show repeatedly in the exhibition space. Another common feature is that they frequently appear in their own work. When they first met to prepare for this collaboration, they discussed their work and tried to identify common themes, such as earth, vomit and slime which they have used as an organizing principle for the exhibition.

The titles of their works bear an importance to both artists, Operazione oesophagus has the melodic rhythm of Italian and the seriousness of medical Latin. Barney has also used medical terms in his works; cremaster is the muscle that controls testicular contractions.

They both make uninhibited use of nudity in their work. The character that can both be seen in Fri©£riksdóttir's sculpture and video is almost naked and sports an exaggerated, hairy vulva. Fri©£riksdóttir inflates the female sexual organs while Barney, on the other hand, uses a very graphic and real description of the penis slowly getting erect, the rhythmical motions of Greenman who finally ejaculates a couple of times. Where slimy liquid is excreted from the upper regions of a body cavity in the work of Fri©£riksdóttir, the same takes place in the nether regions of the body in Barney's work. The emphasis on exaggerated sexual organs, conception and body cavities alludes to the strong primal power that is the driving force of life itself. They both use machines symbolically, she in a rather humble and "female way" with her food processor compared to his gigantic and masculine deforester.

Even if they share common ground, their work differs in the way in which they process their materials. Matthew Barney uses sophisticated video installations with high production values that are juxtaposed with roughly made drawings. Gabríela Fri©£riksdóttir, on the other hand, puts a lot of work into her delicate drawings while producing less elaborate videos, featuring roughly-hewn props in her installations.

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Gabriela Fridriksdottir & Matthew Barney