“I Predict the Future One Scroll at a Time”:
A Visit to Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir´s Studio
On a cold and windy day in early December, we met 31-year-old Icelandic artist Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir. She welcomed us into her colorful, cozy studio in Laugardalur, Reykjavík, located near the fine arts department of the Icelandic University of the Arts. Kristín's artistic practice is vibrant and humorous, yet also enigmatic. Her work weaves together her inner landscape with contemporary events and mindsets. We sat down with her to discuss her creative process.
A: How would you describe your relationship with art and creation? How did you meet, was it love at first sight and how is it going?
K: My journey as an artist started in a similar way as many other artists: getting a lot of compliments as a child for being good at drawing. I remember one time, as a teenager, I was taking these very zoomed-in photographs inside a toilet bowl with my dad’s digital camera. My stepmother, Eygló—who is also an artist—took a close look at the photos and told me the photos were incredibly artistic and that I would probably love it at the Reykjavik School of Visual Arts. Which is something I later ended up doing and loving.
And that’s how my relationship with art began.
As for how my relationship with art is going now—it’s a lot of ups and downs. The biggest highs come when I’m participating in a residency and have the time and space to create. Residencies are also great for meeting interesting people. On the other hand, one of the biggest lows is the financial uncertainty that comes with being an artist. It’s something that can be challenging to navigate.
A: How has the internet and cyberworld shaped your way of thinking in regards to your creation?
K: Online research is a huge source of inspiration for me. Often my ideas come from scrolling online and random sponsored ads. Some things that appear on my feed, or something my algorithm shows me. I try to scroll with an open mind, sometimes I’ll see something and it becomes the first spark for a new work or a prop for a work that's in process.
I try to pay close attention to what I see online. Sometimes, the algorithm presents problems or issues I wasn’t even aware of, something that I channel into my art. And then I just go with it.
A: When you are referencing everyday items and things, for example the internet and everyday phenomena such as TV programs and how we experience it in your art, do you feel you are taking a critical stand towards it?
K: I don't feel that I am criticizing it, maybe more so analyzing it, exploring it, perhaps even mirroring it, in a way. My process is usually based on a gut feeling and the outcome can often be surprising to me.
A: What is the most significant act of resistance in your practice?
K: My most significant act of resistance is probably my work If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them, where I created the “product” OBBSIDIAN© in 2018. At the time, Iceland was experiencing an explosion of tourism—hotels and restaurants were packed, and there was a sense of every Icelander wanting a piece of the pie by capitalizing on the influx of tourists. Puffin stores, for example, were overflowing in Reykjavík.
That summer, I was working as a park ranger at a nature reserve that contained obsidian—a rare and highly sought-after rock. Icelandic law prohibits removing obsidian from its original location due to its rarity, which sparked an idea: I decided to make a fake version. By polishing ordinary rocks sourced from construction sites, I created this fake “obbsidian”.
I exhibited these stones in an exhibition, showcasing larger versions alongside smaller “products” packaged in boxes with advertisements. Eventually, I collaborated with an Icelandic ASMR influencer who had previously done brand deals. She created an ASMR video featuring the artwork and presented it as if it were a real product. During the exhibition, I even sold the fake obsidian in one of the tourist stores that were overflowing at the time.
If you can't beat them, join them. 2018. Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir.
A: In your works you talk about hyper-reality, for example the tapestry paintings that you created about your experiences of seeing an volcanic eruption in Iceland and seeing the mass hysteria surrounding it. What is it about this kind of reality that inspires you to create?
Do you feel that your works exist inside or out of it?
K: I began creating these tapestry paintings in 2021. At the time, I was in grad school in New York and became a bit obsessed with watching videos of the volcanic eruption happening back home in Iceland. Experiencing it through a screen, I felt both very far away and strangely close to home. I followed all the news coverage and online discussions, immersing myself in the event from a distance.
Eventually, I traveled to Iceland to see the eruption in person. I hiked up to the site alongside hundreds of other strangers, all making their way to this active volcano. The experience felt almost cult-like—this collective journey into such an extreme environment. It was like stepping into a scene from a movie, watching new landscapes being born before my eyes.
Eruptions fascinate me because they are both birth and death simultaneously. They form new mountains and landscapes while destroying and transforming the old ones. From this experience, and these thoughts I got inspired to create.
I connected this theme to the internet, which also feels like an ever-changing landscape. What you see online—ads, algorithms, the content you react to, or even the things you say and google—is constantly changing, creating an ever-changing digital world, which reminded me of the eruption site.
Recently, I’ve started incorporating found objects into these paintings, making them more three dimensional. This evolution is based on gut-feeling, and I’m excited to see where it takes me.
Volcano Painting. 2022. Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir.
A: Why do you feel the need to add found objects?
K: Intuition. I go with my gut feeling and I allow them to develop naturally in a new and playful direction. From there, I continue experimenting. The paintings are already three dimensional and I have been exploring ways to build onto that. That includes ribbons, van Gogh's The Starry Night, pictures of real estate agents and so on.
I also draw inspiration from current societal events. Above all, I am not afraid of kitsch aesthetics. If someone calls my work kitsch I never take it negatively—that is indeed what I was aiming for.
A: Is the series still on-going?
K: It will continue to be ongoing while there is still something happening in the Reykjanes peninsula—I actively follow the eruption pattern there. Is it ever going to stop? Will I be doing it forever? We will find out!
A: How does the relationship between your inner world and the external world manifest itself in your practice?
K: They are parallel, in a way. Inspiration often comes from a personal place and then I draw in the external world and factors into the work. For example, at some point in my practice, I got preoccupied with death and how being healthy was like a lottery. It didn’t feel like there was a strategy, just pure luck or unluck. I made a video work using a lottery lady as kind of a personification of death. Someone who decides who wins and who loses.
These ideas led to my work Game of Chess with the Lottery Lady in 2023. In this piece, I combined the game of lottery—which is the game of chance—to the plot of Ingmar Bergman film The Seventh Seal (1957) where death is personified and plays a game of chess with a dying man.
In my video work, the personification of death is the Lottery Lady. She appears on the protagonist’s TV screen, proclaiming that he has neither been lucky nor won anything, and that she has come to take his life. The protagonist challenges her to a game of chess, which is a game of strategy and then they play for his life or death.
In this work, even though I was thinking internally much about death at the time, I did mix in external factors. In the video, the Lottery Lady voices fears that many people can resonate with but rarely discuss—for example fears of being burned out, aging, ending up alone, etc.
A Game of Chess with the Lottery Lady. 2023. Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir.
A: What do you think is the most influential artwork to you that you have created so far?
K: I like to believe that I have not created it yet! My most influential work is still ahead of me—something I will create very soon, no doubt. I wouldn't want to put too much pressure on myself by declaring that I will make “the greatest work ever”. But I also do not want to look at the past and see that my greatest work is behind me and believe that I will not make anything greater, ever again. Hopefully, my most influential work will arrive soon.
A: There is a sense of performance in all your work, even when you are not performing. What is the importance of performance and why do you think your works are so performative?
K: It’s really interesting because, while I don’t necessarily do performances, I do feel that creating time-based media is very performative. There’s a performative element required to make it happen, and in that sense, the two exist together. Even if you’re not the one performing, you’re directing others, which still involves a performance.
When I was living in New York, I worked on a video series where I created and played a character named Tísla. Tísla was essentially made from two trash pickers attached to a belt around my waist. I filmed with the camera pointing down as I walked around with these trash pickers.
I was very aware of how ridiculous I looked when I was filming it in Hudson Yards in The Vessel—a huge architectural monument in New York. Happily no one in New York takes notice of these kinds of spectacles. But to me, the entire act felt like a performance, even though no one was watching.
A: What have been the reactions to your works?
K: People often describe my work as humorous, with a playful edge that draws them in, but they also note the darker or satirical undertones that emerge upon closer reflection.
It has also been described as maximalistic, with some noting my fearless use of vibrant colors and risky stylistic choices.
A: You chose to have your grandfather as a subject in some of your works. How do you experience the separation between private life and art ?
K: My grandfather has always played an active role in my artistic practice. When I graduated from Icelandic University of the Arts, he helped me with the installation of my graduation work and even acted in a video piece. He’s also modeled for my photographs, and he genuinely enjoys it—I'm not forcing him to do it. In a way it is mixing my private life with my art.
Currently, I’m working on a photography series with my grandfather. I visit his home and we film these “get-ready-with-me" inspired by those made by celebrities and influencers, where they get their makeup done while answering questions. In our version, I paint his face with childlike animal face paint and ask him questions about his childhood and younger years as a young adult.
Afterwards, we take photographs inside his home, which could be described as a traditional home of an older person. This setting with him in the childlike face paint (which is often associated with children on 17th of June, Independence Day) creates an uncanny contrast which I like to explore.
The inspiration for this series comes mainly from my curiosity about my grandfather's life and a desire to explore memories he wouldn't usually share. It's a way for me to ask the questions that I never got the opportunity—or perhaps the courage— to ask. Through this work, I'm using art as a means to get closer and to connect more with an important person in my private life. The series is still on-going.
On-going Grandfather series. Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir.
A: By drawing inspiration from videos made for celebrities and influencers, would you say that your grandfather is a celebrity to you?
K: Yes, exactly. I also added him to one of my volcanic paintings. He is ever present in my work.
A: Is there a distinction between your private life and art?
K: Generally I am good at making a distinction between these things, I am not always talking about art to my friends. If I am in a specific mood, I can easily draw artistic inspiration from everywhere, but there is some separation. My mind can be completely closed off from an art mindset and then I just let things and inspiration pass me by.
A: What is your daily routine?
K: During periods when I’m fully focused on my art, my daily routine revolves around showing up at the studio and trying to accomplish as much as possible. I try not to waste studio time on tasks like replying to emails or being on my laptop—they feel like distractions from art making. In my opinion emails should be done over coffee in another space.
Exercising is also a key part of my routine. Physical exercising can boost my productivity and give me my imporant me-time. I try to structure my day around starting each day with a work out and getting to the studio right before noon. My favourite time to work on my art is around and afternoon, as that’s when my mind feels the most energized, awake and hyped. I don't function properly in the mornings anyway, so I would rather work until late than show up in the morning.
Routine is important, but as an artist, no day is the same, so I am used to my unpredictability and my routine changing, that sense of change can be exciting.
A: What development have you seen in your works in regards to an ever changing world?
How do you predict future development?
K: I predict the future one scroll at a time. The internet serves as a space for me to observe and research what's happening in the world. Online, I can follow shifts in communal feelings and emotions shared by people all around the world.
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