©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Enter Here V, archival inkjet prints, hand cut and mounted, attached together, fold into a frame and pull out like a tunnel book

The bodies of work that I will be sharing during Earth Week are linked by this thematic lens: making the often-invisible nature of the global climate and the ecological crisis more visible using conceptual, lens-based art techniques. Each body of work speaks to a different aspect of the climate and ecological crisis: loss of place; waste; sea level rise, plastic pollution, industrial meat production, desertification, and fire. These bodies of work seek to uncover the hidden interdependence of both social and natural systems and challenge us to re-examine our relationships with each other and this planet. – Michael O. Snyder

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Landform Erosion III, archival inkjet prints, hand cut and mounted onto wood frames, attached together with hinges

Charlotta María Hauksdóttir is an Icelandic visual artist based in California. Hauksdóttir received a BA in Photography from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Italy, in and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She also holds a Diploma in Creative and Critical Thinking from the Iceland Academy of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited around the world and been published in several magazines and books, as well as a monograph “A Sense of Place – Imprints of Iceland” by Daylight Books. Hauksdóttir’s work is also part of numerous private and public collections.

Follow Charlotta Hauksdóttir: @charlottamh

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Indentation I, archival inkjet prints, hand cut in a palm print pattern and layered with mixed media onto text on climate change

Imprints

I was inspired to begin photographing the Icelandic landscape 20 years ago, after I moved to the United States and realized how closely my homeland was connected to my identity and sense of being. Landscapes are infused with personal history and in my work I aim to evoke an emotional response rather than represent the actual places I photograph. Created from the perspective of my temporal lobe epilepsy, the fragmented landscape visualizes a sense of distortion and loss, emphasizing the imperfections of memory and the mind’s inability to retain and fully comprehend its environment. In my most recent landscape work I am hand cutting photographs and layering them, creating unique sculptural pieces. Utilizing human biological patterns, such as those of fingerprints, veins in the eyes or brain circuits suggests our own personal connection to, impact on, and interplay with nature. I also use patterns from geographic topography to visualize the reality that nothing ever stays the same, and that in time everything that is created will eventually be replaced, as newer layers supersede what came before. By stacking one image on top of another, what is hidden becomes as important as what is visible, and induces the viewer to draw upon their own experiences to complete the work. In the process of cutting up the photographs I became more aware of the impact I was having on the environment and over the years I have also noticed the changes in the landscape in Iceland and have incorporated that into the work. In some of the work I have removed parts of the photographs revealing black, representing the disappearing landscape, as well as adding text on global warming. Finally, by incorporating human biological patterns, the images also speak to our individual responsibility for our impressions upon nature. -Charlotta Hauksdóttir

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Imperception IV, archival inkjet prints, hand cut in a veins in the eyes pattern and layered with mixed media in between

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Imperception V, archival inkjet print, hand cut in a veins in the eyes pattern and layered with mixed media onto black representing absence of nature

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Erosion VII, archival inkjet prints, hand cut and layered with mixed media onto text on climate change

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Erosion IX, archival inkjet print, hand cut and layered with mixed media onto black representing absence of the glacier

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Imperception VIII, archival inkjet prints, hand cut in a brain circuit pattern and layered with mixed media onto black

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Imperception IX, archival inkjet prints, hand cut in a brain circuit pattern

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Impression XXVI, archival inkjet print, hand cut in a fingerprint pattern and layered onto a wood panel

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Topography Study XXXVI, archival inkjet prints, 23x69in, hand cut and layered with mixed media in between

©Charlotta Hauksdóttir, Topography Study XXXVII, archival inkjet prints, 23x69in, hand cut and layered with mixed media in between