EXHIBITION STATEMENT

To categorize Charlotta Hauksdóttir’s work in this exhibition simply as landscape photography would be a monumental misrepresentation. Although amongst the work shown are majestic, dream-like Icelandic landscapes presented in diptych and triptychs, the underlying theme is that of personal experience and memories. The genius in Hauksdóttir’s photography and mixed-media dimensional collage work is that she inserts her personal narrative organically, recounting each recollection scene by scene.

Hauksdóttir’s messages on environmental degradation are crafted in layers using human biological patterns; partial text from an essay by noted climatologist Dr. Michael E. Mann, Phd is incorporated like fissures in the earth surface and flowing water. To share her own experiences as a person with temporal lobe epilepsy, Hauksdóttir utilizes patterns of brain synapses during a seizure. The results reveal visually the disorientation Hauksdóttir feels - the time displacement and the incomplete memories are represented in a seemingly disjointed space; this is perhaps as close as one could get to seeing through Hauksdóttir’s eyes.

Charlotta Hauksdóttir engages the viewers not just with mesmerizing images but also with the inflection of each curve she cuts, transforming the landscape across fractured time and fragmented space. In doing so, Hauksdóttir invites the viewers to perceive the entire scene by filling in the void with their own experiences and memories.