My Mother’s Skirts
In the smallest things you can discover the largest context; in daily life you will find that which we all share.

In my work I have often used outdated or used-up objects that refer to the past, combining them with other materials that reflect our current ideas.

In the Cairn series (2012) I am working with impressions from my childhood.

I call them My Mother’s Skirts.

I was four or five years old and slept in the old, yellow cot in my parent’s room. Every morning, I awoke as my mother got up quietly and began to dress herself. I watched her movements with sleepy eyes. Still half asleep, I listened to the rustle of her clothes.

This happened every morning, a given ritual, as natural as the sun rising from behind the glaciers in the countryside where I grew up.

Slowly, she would reach for her skirts, one after the other. First her slip, then the grey skirt, then the dress, her apron and, sometimes, a coarser apron, depending on what she had planned for the day.

This vision was an assurance that another day, much like the day before, was about to begin. All was as it should be. To my childish self, this was an assurance of security. My mother was her usual self and nothing would move her, any more than the glacier could be moved. When I look back, I see the cairns that marked the road and I understand what they mean when I look to the future. The cairns make it easier to get one’s bearings.

Thordis Alda Sigurdardottir
Translation: Jon Proppe

1. A Studio in Iceland, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, USA, 2015

2. Chronotopology, BWA - Municipal Art Gallery of Bydgoszcz (Galeria Miejska), Bydgoszcz, Poland, 2013

3. Chronotopology, Panevezys Civic Art Gallery, Panevezys, Lithuenia, 2013

4. Chronotopology, Arka Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuenia, 2012

The exhibition of Start Art group “Chronotopology” at Panevėžys city gallery. Artists from Iceland Anna Eyjolfsdottir,

Eiriksina Kr. Asgrimsdottir, Ragnhildur Stefansdottir, Thordis Alda Sigurdardottir and Thuridur Sigurdardottir 

4. Chronotopology, Panevezys Civic Art Gallery, Panevezys, Lithuenia, 2013

Pathbook, 50 pages

In Memory of My Parents

Tvær spurningar ætlaðar þér og  þú mátt skrifa svörin/ hugleiðingarnar hér á þessa síðu.

Here are two questions for you: you may write your answers or thoughts here on this page.

Hvað úr þinni bernsku ert þú meðvituð/meðvitaður um að hafi afgerandi áhrif á líf þitt í dag?

What events of your childhood do you feel have had a decisive effect on your present life?

Hvað er það  í fari foreldra þinna sem hefur skipt þig mestu máli á lífsleiðinni?

What characteristics of your parents have had the greatest effect on the course of your life?

2. A Studio in Iceland, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, USA, 2015

1. Chronotopology, Arka Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuenia, 2012