The Immersive Hairy Worlds of Shoplifter - Hi-Fructose Magazine

"“We constantly try to tame it and we have to make conscious, creative decisions all the time on what to do with it.” With a background in drawing and painting, Arnardóttir didn't know just how crucial a role that synthetic hair would play in her art. “I think that hair snuck into the rest of my work. I didn't realize that it would turn into this,” she says."

"“Instead of drawing on paper, I was just going to use the physical material,” she says. “I started making murals, where I would place the braids and create this drawing with the patterns that are created when you do that.” In part, Arnardóttir's choice of material is reflective of her interest in the sheer volume of stuff that exists in this world."

"“Mass production of ridiculous things is fascinating to me, like a banana cutter or these ridiculous, nonsensical objects that are supposed to enrich our lives and make it easier, but it's just an onslaught of stuff,” she says. Arnardóttir says that she likes to use materials that already exist in the world, perhaps recontextualizing them in the process. “Sometimes the original purpose is in the foreground, sometimes in the background,” she says."

"“Right now, the hair extensions have ceased to be so obviously hair extensions, but in the beginning I was doing braids out of brown hair extensions so that was referencing humans in that product,” she says. “Now, it's become this onslaught of colors, texture and, frankly, a huge, analog, three-dimensional landscape painting in a way.”"

Inspiration comes from human behavior and the positivity of vanity. Hair is treated as a material that requires constant conscious, creative choices to tame and style. A background in drawing and painting led to an unexpected role for synthetic hair in the work. Hair appears across the practice, including early use of brown braids as physical material instead of drawing on paper. Murals were built by placing braids to create patterns. The choice of materials reflects fascination with the volume of mass-produced objects, including nonsensical items. Materials already existing in the world are recontextualized, with original purposes sometimes foregrounded and sometimes backgrounded. Hair extensions evolve from recognizable references to humans into an onslaught of color, texture, and an analog three-dimensional landscape.

Read at Hi-Fructose Magazine - The New Contemporary Art Magazine