Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir is a PhD student at the Faculty for Languages and Cultures at University of Iceland, writer and curator. She was Assistant and Associate Professor at the Iceland University of the Arts from 2011-2021 and Dean of the Department for Design and Architecture for a period of four years. She is now working on a PhD project at the University of Iceland on poetic storytelling and earthbound relations in Danish Art and Literature. Sigrún Alba has published numerous books and articles in Icelandic and English on contemporary art and on memory, trauma, historiography and photography, as well as fiction.
In 2022-2023 Sigrún Alba curated the exhibition Snowflakes and other surprises, using the concept of resonance and poetic storytelling as a reaction to climate crises. The project was a collaboration between Fotografisk Center in Copenhagen, Landskrona Foto, Sweden and Northern Photographic Center in Oulu, Finland. For more info see: https://www.photonorth.fi/en/nayttelyt/snowflakes-and-other-surprises/
In her recent work Sigrún Alba has worked the concept of poetic storytelling in the context of climate crisis and reaction. Her publication on the concept includes:
- „Snowflakes and Other Surprises: A story About Three Exhbitions.“ Art in Iceland / Myndlist á Íslandi. No. 4. 2024, s.49-60.
- Snjóflygsur á næturhimni. Um ljósmyndir, minningar og snertingu við veruleikann. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 2022.
- „Poetic Storytelling in contemporary photography. Relation to nature and the poesis of everyday life in works of selected artist in Iceland and other Nordic countries.“ Arts 2020, 9, 129; doi: 10.3390/arts9040129. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/4/129
- „Að draga andann. Ljóðræn frásögn í íslenskri og norrænni samtímaljósmyndun.“ Fegurðin er ekki skraut. Íslensk samtímaljósmyndun. Sigrún Alba Sigurðardótti og Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir ritstýrðu. Reykjavík: Fagurskinna, 2020, s. 245-291.
Short description of her PhD Thesis: Poetic Storytellling. Trauma, position and relation to nature in contemporary art and litterature in Denmark
Climate crises and the increasing emphasis on acceleration and efficiency in the contemporary world, together with the increasing alienation with nature and the environment, have caused a situation that can be described as a kind of shock or trauma. The research project looks at how art as a creative force can make it easier for people to deal with this situation and how Danish artists and writers have put forward works that aim to identify a certain kind of alienation or disconnection to oneself and the world, and to rethink the relation between humans and the world and the position of the human within nature. The research draws on theories from trauma studies and post-humanist studies to analyse if and how the creative aspects of art can be used in processing the effects of climate change and alienation or lack of relation to oneself and to the world. Works by selected visual artist (Astrid Kruse Jensen, Rune Bosse, Trine Søndergaard, Matthias Svold og Ulrik Hasemann) and writers (Theis Ørntoft, Solvej Balle) will be analysed based on the above mentioned theories. The aim is to put forward the different elements of different art forms, the visual and the textual, in this respect, and explain how Danish artists have used art and literature to respond creatively to the climate crisis and increased acceleration and alienation.
Sigrún Alba is also part of the research project Centring Families in Iceland’s Just Transition which is a collaboration between Brunel University in London and the University of Iceland. In the project Sigrún Alba will analyse Icelandic literature and films to develop a deeper understanding of how climate change has marked family lives over the years and what lessons can be learned from the past.
