Shoplifter/Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir – Hypernature

Icelandic artist takes over ARoS with a psychedelic and colourful dripstone cave of artificial hair. A sensory experience with humour, play and magic.

The exhibition consists of the installation Hypernature, a colourful grotto of cathedral-like proportions with a wealth of references. It evokes comic books, colourful teddy bears, the colourful hair experiments of punk culture, fairytale parallel worlds and myths about secret magical caves in the bowels of the earth.

Although Shoplifter's works are a starting point for conversations on several highly topical subjects, a work like Hypernature is first and foremost a sensory experience that activates the emotions. Together with the work's soundtrack, created in collaboration with Icelandic composer Skúli Sverrisson, a layer of breath, movement and time is added. The Hypernature installation invites visitors to a multi-sensory sensory experience.

Shoplifter is an Icelandic New York-based contemporary artist. When she moved to New York, her birth name (Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir) was mispronounced as "Shoplifter" and she has gone by this artist name ever since.

In 2019, Shoplifter represented Iceland at the Venice Biennale with the all-encompassing installation Chromo Sapiens, of which Hypernature, created for the exhibition at ARoS, is a further development. Her works create a platform for experimentation, play and conversations about art. At the same time, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the world's overuse of artificial materials and today's need for sensory (over)stimulation and to seek refuge in parallel worlds.

Stibofonden

Konsul George Jorck og Hustru Emma Jorck’s Fond

Egetæpper

Statens Kunstfond