FFF #2.4 – Fishspa and Kjarvalsstaðir
[This happened on Saturday 25 October 2014, but was written on 26 October 2014. Indeed!]
This past spring I received a gift certificate to visit a Fishspa that is located downtown. It is a place where you dip your feet into a tub full of fish for at least 20 minutes, and the fish eat all the dead skin away, leaving you with very clean smooth skin.
The experience was a little weird, the fish really liked my feet, and didn’t seem to be quite done when my 20 minutes were up! The sensation was somewhat ticklish, but not so ticklish that I needed to move my feet around. The fish don’t have teeth so there was no biting and no pain. I’m thinking this might be a nice fun thing to do annually…?
I hadn’t planned what to do after getting my feet eaten, but since it was nearby, I decided on Kjarvalsstaðir, the art museum where they display the works of legendary Icelandic painter Jóhannes S. Kjarval alongside other exhibitions. I last visited Kjarvalsstaðir on my very first FFF outing, and since this was an unplanned visit, I had no idea what was in store for me.
Both showrooms where hosting a mixed exhibition of the works of Kjarval (Top Soil) and Swedish artist Andreas Eriksson (Roundabouts). The Swede supposedly took some inspiration from the works of the much older Kjarval, which is why their works were being shown somewhat side by side.
My take on the Swede was that he was a) not my cup of tea, but that b) he was very internally consistent in showing the murky colors of the woods surrounding his home. Also shown were bronze castings of birds that had died after flying onto his windows, as well as molehill mounds. Yes, very woodsy. It wasn’t all brownish green to black though, two spray-painted images in bright colors were a little odd, and then there were white 3D things. Yeah.
Anyway, enough wordage, on to the photos! (51 images total!)
Hello there Fishspa, almost hiding on the first floor. Up the hill is Laugarvegur, the downtown shopping street, and …
… this is the view down the hill. That’s Mount Esja in the distance.
The spa is essentially this one room, with space for four persons. That black shape in the lower right corner is where you shower your feet, apply some disinfectant, and shower again before submerging your feet.
Yes, I did indeed put my feet into water to feed some fish. Apparently this is just the ‘protein’ part of their diet, they get other food too.
Here is the view from my perch of the shower stall and entrance. You all ready for some more fish photos now?
Fish being busy.
These fish are called Garra Rufa, or doctor fish. They suck and nibble at the skin, and are apparently even used to alleviate psoriasis symptoms!
Here fishy, fishy!
Yum, yum!
Some very smooth and clean feet (well, until I put them inside shoes) then made their way over to Kjarvalsstaðir.
This sculpture always reminds me of the Fifth Element.
Building cranes galore. Not always a good sign.
The church of Hallgrímur squatting on top of a hill in the distance.
Inside is spacious, and not nearly this dark, but it’s hard to take photos insides and outsides where both are a the correct light level.
A very big painting of a tree and stuff behind it. Now, the camera makes this look a whole lot better and more interesting that it is ‘live’. The colors are more muted and the whole thing is just ‘dark’.
Yes, let’s juxtaposition a very dark landscape piece with one of Kjarval’s colorful works.
Another big tree, again depicted more colorful than in real life.
Closeup of the tree. I’ll grant the artist that he’s pretty darn good at making interesting textures. He must have had a good time scraping all that paint.
Where is Adda the Cynical Art Critic when you need her?!
More texture, this time with shrinky-stuff.
Probably my favorite of his, but still, the colors were much more muted in real life.
Looks like he owns more than just brown, gray, and black colors.
Kjarval knew his stuff.
More Kjarval.
Zoom in on the picture above. I wonder how long this took?
Meanwhile, in gray-and-muggy land…
Gray-and-muggy in cotton.
The arrangement. The influence is obvious.
Tiny Kjarval mountain, mostly in pink. Maybe he had leftover pink?
Dark and depressing rainbow. How is that possible?!?
Escape into the bright atrium.
About the show, something about not being too specific when painting nature, and going for feels rather than accuracy?
The arts and craft room was full of kids.
Time for a hot chocolate break!
I made the mistake of having the apple pie heated in the microwave. It came out way too hot in places, and I’m an impatient eater. The hot chocolate was pretty good, probably 3.9 out of 5.
Started wondering what these were…
Well, that’s charming!
This text was on the window by the other dead bird statues. Very artsy.
I finally entered the second exhibition hall, and found this all a bit weird.
An old notebook of Kjarval’s. Obsessive much?
The room seen from the other side. Those black things on the floor were…
… casts of molehills.
Meanwhile, the display cases had a bunch of little sketches by Kjarval.
Upside down house.
An adjacent room had Kjarval on the left, and Andreas Eriksson on the right.
Kjarval.
Not Kjarval. I believe the muggy ones were all titled something like ‘A car drives by at such and such time’.
The thrid and final room.
The last two kinda of look like facial profiles?
I liked this one by Kjarval, it’s probably my favorite color blue.
Back outside, a couple of ladies were preparing very tightly grouped dinner tables. This is the second time I visit where there’s obviously something about to happen that I’m not invited to. Boohoo.
And that was it for this weekend’s FFF!