What are your sources of inspiration?
My work is unequivocally architectural and is influenced by my training and profession. However, natural forms reflecting my upbringing in Iceland are also reference points. My work, like most art, is a manifestation of the enduring themes of my experience.
How do you create your surface patterns?
Firstly, I paint the piece with two coats of slip. When the surface has dried, I accurately draw the pattern onto it using strips of paper and pencil. Using metal tools I scrape the slip off, revealing two-tone monochrome patterns. This creates the desired pattern and also a surface texture.
© Björk Haraldsdóttir
What is different about making art versus architecture?
Producing an artwork strips away the burden of technical and legislative constraints to leave only the creative act; a liberating situation. However, I still think as an architect. I plan and draw works before they are made but ‘feel’ and adapt the work as it is made.
Can you tell us a memorable moment in your professional life?
There are quite a few but the single most memorable moment was when I first walked into my very own (and first) studio in the summer of 2011. It was exhilarating, smelled divine and it was full of newly delivered clay. I couldn’t wait to start and I haven’t stopped since.