{"id":9989,"date":"2014-02-16T23:15:30","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T23:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/?p=9989"},"modified":"2014-04-08T23:03:53","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T23:03:53","slug":"fff-6-kling-og-bang-the-visitors-and-kaffibrennslan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/fff-6-kling-og-bang-the-visitors-and-kaffibrennslan\/","title":{"rendered":"FFF #6 – Kling og Bang (The Visitors) and Kaffibrennslan"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Written 19 February 2014]<\/p>\n

FFF<\/a> #6 almost didn’t happen because it was such a busy weekend with the double birthday celebration etc. etc.<\/p>\n

But, I’d been meaning to check out the gallery showing of The Visitors (YouTube<\/a>, NYTimes<\/a>) by Ragnar Kjartansson<\/a> (and friends), having heard good things about it<\/a>, and the kids were whining, so I decided to make a break for it.<\/p>\n

I’m very glad that I did because this was so fun, lovely, technically impressive, and charming. \u00a0Oh, Ragnar, why must you be so darn charming?! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Now, because this is Icleand, and Iceland has a tiny population, it should surprise nobody that Ragnar (anno 1976) and I attended the same high school\/junior college. \u00a0Now, I didn’t know him per se, but I certainly knew of<\/em> him, and knew people that knew him.<\/p>\n

It’s funny how some people are just incredibly noticeable right from an early age.<\/p>\n

I haven’t really followed his work closely, but from what I’ve glimpsed over the years, one recurring theme in his works (which straddle the range from music to painting to installations to performance art) is repetition. \u00a0(See painting the same guy in the same room in the same outfit once per day for six months<\/a>, getting opera singers to repeat a famous operatic moment again and again for 12 hours<\/a>\u00a0– YouTube link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This work had a lot of inbuilt repetition too, but not so that it felt gimmicky.<\/p>\n

Basically, you walk into a large very dark room, where there are 9 large illuminated screens, set up such that some obscure others from view. \u00a0On each screen is a musician\/singer with headphones and they’re all performing\/singing the same song, but each of them is in a separate room, so they’re united, but apart. (28 images total, 1 video)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A large dark room, with a surprising amount of people! \u00a0(No, they’re not dancing, it’s just an animated gif!)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

The song goes on for a very long time (total run time 64 minutes), mutating through highs and lows, quiet and loud. \u00a0 The lyrics aren’t complicated, and the same phrase\/phrases are repeated over and over again. \u00a0But as you walk around, you start to notice that each screen has it’s own loudspeaker, so that when you approach one of them, it’s like your stepping into that room, but you still hear all the others loud and clear. \u00a0The rooms belong to an old manor, and they’re quite interesting to look at, with lots of stuff in them.<\/p>\n