Artist in Focus: Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir

Hulda Rós Guðnadóttir recently opened her exhibition S-I-L-I-C-A-0-3 at Akureyri Art Museum. Hulda has presented solo exhibitions internationally, and S-I-L-I-C-A-0-3 is the third exhibition to emerge publicly from her long-term research project SILICA, which she has been developing over the past years.

The following interview was originally published in Icelandic by the cultural section of the regional newspaper. Link to original interview in Icelandic.

A research project spanning continents

S-I-L-I-C-A-0-3 has evolved across different continents and locations connected to the materials required for silicon production for the high-tech industry, such as semiconductors and the solar energy sector.

“In the project, I examine how the technology we often perceive as immaterial actually has a highly material and energy-intensive production history that stretches across the globe, reaching deep into the earth itself, depleting soils, and even penetrating mountains.”

Hulda explains that the work is particularly connected to North Iceland and to the fact that, until recently, silicon metal production took place in Húsavík, near Akureyri, as part of a global production chain.

“In the works, I use raw materials that I obtained from PCC at Bakki in Húsavík — chunks of coal used in the smelting process — and I have also created sculptures from the silicon itself. The silicon produced at Bakki was nearly 99% pure and was then further processed elsewhere.”

Silicon in focus

“The word silica is not the name for silicon itself, but a common term for silicon dioxide, a material found widely throughout the Earth’s crust. Industrial production, however, requires extremely pure raw material, which is why quartz is often used, since it contains fewer impurities than many other forms of silica. Extracting it therefore requires reaching the geological layers where such quartz deposits are found — sometimes as veins within mountains that must be excavated to access them.”

From Berlin to Akureyri

Hulda is based in Berlin, and an earlier exhibition in this series took place there.

“It was an installation with photographs and video, and the next presentation was at an art fair in Vienna where the sculptures now shown in Akureyri were premiered alongside other works from the research project. In 2020 there was also a kind of preview during the 20th anniversary celebration of the Nordic Embassies in Berlin, in a group exhibition of Nordic art, where giant billboards derived from the research project were shown.”

Hulda also works with glass, a material produced directly from silicon dioxide, which does not require the same transformation into purified silicon as semiconductor production does.

Collaboration with the Akureyri Art Museum

Hulda presented the project to Sigríður Örvarsdóttir, director of the museum and curator of the exhibition, with a particular emphasis on premiering the project in Iceland close to the people who had worked at Bakki and Þeistareykir and who had granted her access to the smelter and drilling sites.

“They were also generous enough to let me have materials to experiment with. Sigríður selected the sculptures for the exhibition, and from there it developed into a show with a special focus on the direct agency of the materials involved and that ‘transforms them into a site of critical reflection,’ as Sigríður writes in the curatorial text.”

The materials become more than a medium for ideas; they become active participants in the formation of meaning, and their properties and origins become part of the work itself.

Hulda says she has long been interested in connecting research, site-specific experience, and sensory perception within exhibition spaces so that people experience the works both physically and conceptually.

“When I presented the project to Sigríður, it was very important to me that the exhibition would not only be shown in an international art context abroad, but also here, close to the place where this story and these materials have their real roots. I also think it matters that the Akureyri Art Museum holds a strong position within Icelandic contemporary art and serves as an important platform for conversations about society, nature, and the present moment.”

Origins of the research

The project itself has a long prehistory, but the initial spark can be traced back to 2017 when Hulda was invited to Australia, where she was able to visit a silicon dioxide mine owned by a Japanese company.

“This was at a time when there was significant discussion in Iceland about opening silicon smelters, and I connected these things together. Also because the artistic research project I was immersed in at the time had drawn my attention to the enormous supply chains that characterize contemporary global production systems. I found the Icelandic term kísilbræðsla (silicon smelter) fascinating because many people know the word without actually knowing what takes place there. Many assume silicon is extracted directly from Icelandic soil, rather than understanding that silicon is actually being produced. I’m also very interested in how Iceland is connected to and participates in the wider world — how we are part of a larger system and far from isolated.”

Contrasts of materials and experience

Very different materials and oppositions meet within Hulda’s works — coal, glass, and silicon; darkness and light; heaviness and transparency.

“I think people sense both a certain beauty and also some tension or discomfort when they realize that these materials are connected to the technology we use every day, yet rarely see how it comes into being.”

The exhibition is not presented as a direct political statement, but rather as a space for reflecting on our relationship to materials, energy production, nature, and global systems of manufacturing. Visitors can expect a highly material exhibition in which light, shadows, and the properties of the materials themselves play a crucial role. Some of the works also change depending on how people move through the space and how light falls upon them.

Materials as active participants

“I work with very different media depending on what each research project calls for. Over the years I have worked with video, photography, installations, and sculpture, but also with text and research itself as part of the artistic process.”

In the SILICA project, the materials themselves have become an important part of the work. Hulda works with silicon, coal, and glass because these materials are not merely symbolic; they carry a real history of energy production, industry, and manufacturing processes.

“I find it interesting when the materials themselves become active participants in the work, rather than neutral carriers of ideas.”

Research journeys around the world

Hulda has travelled extensively in pursuit of the research behind the project.

“What has probably been most challenging about the project is the immense and prolonged research process behind it. The work has required travel to places including Uruguay, Colombia, Egypt, Taiwan, and South Korea, where I researched different parts of the production chain — from mining and energy production to the high-tech industry itself.”

“It is extremely difficult to gain access to these worlds. It took many years to enter mines, monoculture regions, and industrial production sites, and often required building trust over long periods of time. Many of these workplaces are closed or highly monitored environments where photography and research are not automatically permitted.”

Physical experience as part of the work

“The journeys themselves could also be physically demanding. In Colombia, for example, we drove for days from mountainous regions down to the Caribbean plains where the heat was intense, and in Egypt we had to drive deep into the Eastern Desert every morning in specially equipped jeeps to reach the quartz mines. At the same time, this has been one of the most important aspects of the project: experiencing with my own body the places, distances, climates, and material realities that underpin the technology we use every day.”