Ólöf Nordal

Blirds are bronze casts that portray figures in transformation. Their transition suggests morphing from human form to bird form, from the earthly to the spiritual. The Blirds belong to the world of the grotesque and the uncanny, but also refer to migrating birds who fly over the sea in the shape of a bird as well as in human form.

In her work artist Ólöf Nordal (b. 1961) deals with Icelandic history and the collective memory of a nation in a critical and analytical way. Her artistic research has been focused on the self-identity of the nation in postcolonial times, the origin and the reflection of national motifs in the present, and the fragment as a mirror into the past. She has for a long time worked with bird images, which are often rooted in folklore, image building and contemporary culture. Her work continues to explore the folkloric traditions surrounding Icelandic nature as well as those scientific practices that, in their seeking to preserve and display nature, also fictionalise it.