Himnadansarar
May 24- September 15, 2025
The Factory
Djúpavík, Árneshreppur, Vestfirðir, Island
@djupavikart
@hoteldjupavik
Brief Artist Statement
In November 2023, my family and I lived at NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland. While in residence, I witnessed auroras for the first time in my life. Thanks to the guidance of scientists Sævar Helgi Bragason and Dr. Gunnlaugur Björnsson, I learned that the relationship between Earth’s protective electromagnetic field, the sun’s fluctuating solar energy, and the chemical composition of Earth’s atmosphere, each contribute to the metrics used predict the probability of auroral activity. Learning this helped increase my chances of capturing aurora footage in Skagaströnd, Mývatn, Thingvellir, and Reykjavík.
In this version of Glint, Glimmer, Glow, the undulating lights of the auroras over Skagaströnd and Thingvellir are projected onto chainmail, a metal fabric designed by humans to protect human bodies. The colorful chainmail, which was woven by my students and I, emulates the chemical composition and shapes of auroras while serving as a metaphor for Earth’s own semi-permeable electromagnetic armor that protects all life on Earth.
Curator Emilie Dalum's Statement for Himnadansarar
The Factory 2025: Sky Dancers explores the natural phenomenon of the aurora borealis with artworks as ethereal and ephemeral as the northern lights themselves. Utilizing both science and myth, the 10 artists lead the way through the old herring factory in Djúpavík, awakening the phenomenon rarely visible to our eyes during summertime – gesturing to the untouchable, connecting Earth and Sky. The northern lights ebb and flow through a 5-6 year buildup, followed by a peak, then a 5-6 year decrease — an 11-year cycle all told. With the peak of the auroras in 2024, the inspiration for Sky Dancers began.
Never absent to the Earth, the unique lightscapes dance endlessly in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, charming penguins and polar bears, and revealing themselves to humans fortunate to see them. Only visible during darkness and clear skies, they peak during the hush of night. The northern auroral zone touches the countries of Finland, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Scotland, Greenland, and Iceland. At times, the colourful show pours out to nearby regions, but with less strength. “Aurora” comes from the Roman goddess of dawn and “boreas” is the Greek word for north wind. The heavenly colour storms have spellbound humans for countless years, drawing body, mind and soul into a haze of darkness and light — and invoking spirituality, healing, joy, chaos, and fear.
Our ancestors turned to myths and legends to explain the phenomenon. The Inuit tribes of Greenland and Canada suggest that the light guided the spirits of the dead to the afterlife, or that it was the spirits playing football with a walrus skull. In Norse mythology, the light was the glance of the armor of the Valkyries. For the Sámi, the auroras brought danger; they were seen as the souls of the dead, and if you caught their attention, they would take you up into the sky. Estonians believed the lights to be sleighs taking guests to a heavenly wedding celebration, while in Icelandic folklore, they are said to ease pain during childbirth. Rarely visible further south in Europe, the lights were considered an evil omen foretelling death and war during the French Revolution.
Today, the natural spectacle is a popular tourist activity. Just as people travel around the world at high speed to see the lights, they’ve become a pleasure and commodity on social media. Thus, the narrative of the northern lights is shapeshifting, crafted by time and humans, offering a myriad of truths. However, the absolute pull of wonder remains, connecting humans with something more-than-human.
The artists of Sky Dancers tell their own personal stories about and interpretations of the mystifying phenomenon. The northern lights counterpose as a natural phenomenon not affected by climate change. Remember this, as you find yourself wrapped in misty darkness and flickering light, where you'll come across curtain-formed webs, cords, gloomy reflections, shamanic impulses, and superstition – merging cosmology, geography, and humans. Opposites attract, and it is said that darkness renders the self open, reducing our sense of restricted self, offering an entrance into the ‘other’. This otherness may suggest why the northern lights so easily allow us to travel beyond scientific comprehension into fable.
Thus, you are invited to surrender. You may wander back to the time of theoretical ignorance, or dwell upon the scientific explanations of the universe. However, light and darkness are always at stake, carving their way through Sky Dancers, enacting a multitude of choreographies.
Brief Artist Statement
In November 2023, my family and I lived at NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland. While in residence, I witnessed auroras for the first time in my life. Thanks to the guidance of scientists Sævar Helgi Bragason and Dr. Gunnlaugur Björnsson, I learned that the relationship between Earth’s protective electromagnetic field, the sun’s fluctuating solar energy, and the chemical composition of Earth’s atmosphere, each contribute to the metrics used predict the probability of auroral activity. Learning this helped increase my chances of capturing aurora footage in Skagaströnd, Mývatn, Thingvellir, and Reykjavík.
In this version of Glint, Glimmer, Glow, the undulating lights of the auroras over Skagaströnd and Thingvellir are projected onto chainmail, a metal fabric designed by humans to protect human bodies. The colorful chainmail, which was woven by my students and I, emulates the chemical composition and shapes of auroras while serving as a metaphor for Earth’s own semi-permeable electromagnetic armor that protects all life on Earth.
With Gratitude to Warren Wilson College Holden Crew members who helped weave the chainmail for this exhibition:
Trace Howard
Isa Conlin
Amelia Dietrich
Haden Mason
Andaluna Malki
Toby Freel
Hannah Bodoh
With Additional Gratitude to these folks who supported this effort…
Emilie Dalum
NES Artist Residency
Madalyn Wofford
Julia Caldwell
Warren Wilson College
Randel C. Moore
Artemis Cellerini-Moore
Olivia Lloyd-Sherlock Arribas
Hotel Djúpavík