Dynasty
2007
Gjörningaklúbburinn
The video work Dynasty is a vision of the future, meant to raise people's awareness of the environment and global warming. It was commissioned by The Natural World Museum for the show Envisioning Change in 2007. The name of the work, Dynasty, partly refers to the TV series of the same name that follows the story of oil barons from Texas. Many of the effects of climate change now felt by humanity, including natural disasters and changes in the earth's ecosystem, can be directly or indirectly traced back to human activity, with the use of fossil fuels at the top of the list.
In this work you can see three privileged ladies who have run off to the mountain to enjoy the cool and open spaces, a luxury now that global warming is threatening the earth's ecosystem. They wear their warmest fur coats and hunt for their food, huddle over the fire, sing, crochet and meditate. The phones don't work, the laptops are useless. When the temperature rises they take off their coats and eventually disappear themselves into the void and time. In the background, one can see buildings belonging to a power station and a dam, images that raise questions on what happens to electricity production when the glaciers have melted and the glacial rivers have disappeared. What would our lives be like without electricity?