ALVEG EINS OG ALVÖRU // UNREAL

Solo exhibition at the Reykjavík Art Museum in August 2023.

I look at her quickly. Need to look again. I thought it was a real spider for a second. I’m so glad it isn’t a real spider. But it’s always there. And sometimes I think it’s real. I get scared of it during those seconds where I’m not sure. But it’s not real. But it’s just like real fear. Sometimes I try to crush it. But it kind of turns into a hug. If you crush a plush spider it just flattens for a bit and then slowly rises up again. I feel like it’s happening more to me. That I think something is real. That’s not. Sometimes it doesn’t look anything like what I think it is. Like dandelions. Sometimes if I look quickly I see dandelions where there aren’t dandelions. Like toothbrushes. You can’t make a wish if you blow on a toothbrush. 

It’s just better to have fakes. Like artificial flowers. In bloom. Always. They never change. Never die. Stable. Predictable. No smell. No rot. Living things are so unpredictable. And changeable. I have a sip of the white wine but my mouth fills with fluff. I have a sip, no a bite, of a coke bottle to get rid of the taste. I bite the top off first, that’s the glass. It has less taste. Then the coke. The gummy squashes between my teeth. That’s the good thing about fakes. I can have a sip of the plush wine and never lose control. Never get drunk. The gummy coke never shakes. It never foams over. I drop the glass on the floor but it doesn’t break. It never breaks. But you can’t smell the flowers. Or take a sip of the wine. Or crush the spider. Then you never crush the spider. Then it’s always there. And you keep being afraid when you look quickly. Maybe it would be better if there were a real spider. That you could crush. 

I reach again for the glass of wine and blow on the dandelion, but it doesn’t budge. You can’t make a wish unless it blows away. It needs to blow away to get the wish. Most wishes are granted because of blowing. Without blowing you can’t get any wish granted. Blow on an eyelash. Blow on a candle. Blow on a dandelion. Maybe if I would blow away, something would come true. I wish for white wine. And real coke. And I wish I could crush the spider.