Halldór Ragnarsson - IN BETWEEN ME & THE PAST

In his art, Halldór Ragnarsson reflects on the philosophy of language and the eternal cycle of emotions in connection to language and meaning. In his works, Halldór examines how through repetition words can potentially lose their meaning and value. Using sentences and phrases from his immediate environment, he bends the rules of language and plays with words and unusual expressions.

Through these expressions Halldór attempts to compare himself and his personal life to the philosophy of language and the meaning of language in general. The phrases in his works are personal, sometimes even sourced from his own diary or words he grasps from his nearest environment, press or social media.

After collecting these „collages“ of sentences and phrases, Halldór sets these words in motion by repeating them in his works. Repetition, as Halldór puts it, “can be approached as a mantra while working even though some of these lines are sometimes something that you never want to hear again. By repeating these sentences, I am able to place myself in this present moment and I guess through the practice of repetition certain calm develops in my works, wherein through the act of writing the words are neither past nor future“.

The art is printed on matte museum-quality paper sourced from Japan.