A collaborative project with Australian artist Beth Dillon, I’m New Here was developed during a two-month winter residency at Listhus Artspace, Olafsfjordur, North Iceland.

 

A series of video, photography and sculpture interrogating processes of landscape viewing and the framing of its representation. This work presents acts of landscape appreciation in a number of locations throughout the north of Iceland. The fake tropical plant becomes a stand-in for the artist in remote surroundings.

 

In particular, ‘I’m new here’ investigates the touristic gaze, considering how ideas of novelty, beauty and attraction influence the experience of exotic and unfamiliar places.The resulting installation presented at First Draft gallery in Sydney, Australia seeks to engage with shared narratives and images of the tourist and travelling artist, adopting a playful approach to behaviours of sightseeing and being seen, processes of repetition and exchange, and the aestheticisation of everyday rituals and actions.