ERLINGUR PÁLL INGVARSSON — PERPENDICULARS

23–27.04.1980

For five consecutive days, beginning on Wednesday, April 23, 1980, Erlingur Páll Ingvarsson from Iceland will perform five different “Perpendiculars” at Galerie S:t Petri, Lund.

About two years ago, Erlingur Ingvarsson completed his art studies in Reykjavík and, like several other Icelandic artists before him, went to Amsterdam to absorb the Dutch cultural climate. More recently, he has been working at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf.

A poetic undertone permeates his work. Despite having tried during his stay in Holland and Germany to break free from the dependency on language, he has come to realize that one cannot easily cast off centuries of Icelandic literary tradition. Instead, he seeks to weave this heritage into a contemporary language — a language of images and visual poetry.

In Perpendiculars I–V, Erlingur Ingvarsson presents ideas primarily dealing with time — how an idea develops, changes, is interrupted, and reinterpreted. What matters is not so much the idea as a fixed form, structure, or entity, but rather the new interpretative possibilities that the ideas themselves open up and through which he seeks to communicate with us. An idea breaks off, turns at a right angle, and continues along new paths, which can be endlessly reinterpreted.

It is often such moments of interruption that determine when an idea suddenly feels insufficient and must be broken off, transformed, or viewed from another angle. In life, we are given a limited number of cards — with certain given possibilities — yet instead of stagnating, even a single possibility can offer a new perspective. There is never only one way to see; there are infinitely many. Through his Perpendiculars, Erlingur Ingvarsson leads us through such variations of interpretation — variations of ideas over time.

This is his first solo exhibition. Perpendicular I will be performed on Wednesday, April 23 at 6 p.m. The remaining performances will follow on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, also at 6 p.m.

Galerie S:t Petri, Archive of Experimental and Marginal Art, Box 1507, 221 01 Lund, Sweden.
Open weekdays 3–8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 1–5 p.m.