Rounding the Corner

As a co-founder of the artists’ group and gallery SÚM established in 1965 in Reykjavík to function as a community and art space supporting Icelandic contemporary art on both the local and the international scenes, Hreinn Friðfinnsson has been an acclaimed figure among the pioneers of Icelandic avant-garde. Experimenting with three-dimensional mediums and problematising the reliability of visual data, his works play with our understanding of space and time through the subtle modifications he makes to ordinary materials and ready-made objects. "Rounding the Corner" is a sculpture that employs reflections and visual illusions. The spatial dimensions of the hollow glass object presented within an open-faced tetrahedron made of three triangular, steel mirrors are difficult to discern due to the surrounding reflections. Designed to be placed in a corner of the exhibition space, the work gives the impression of endless depth. This optical illusion created by Friðfinnsson with the dual use of reflective and transparent surfaces suggests an alternative mode of communication between the eye and the mind, as well as an ambiguous terrain between what is seen and what is perceived.