After passing the sparkling trees and rich glamour that drips from Park Avenue, I arrived at Scandinavia House in good spirits to explore the current Saga-Sites exhibition with paintings by W.G. Collingwood and photography by Einar Falur Ingólfsson. The attendant handed over brochures for the Icelandic exhibition with an awkwardness that made me pause.  It felt like a writer giving me a manuscript they longed to burn but still felt compelled to share. 

While at first sight it may have seemed bland; this exhibition possessed a hidden bounty for the perceptive art aficionado.  Displaying the combined efforts of 19th Century British painter, W.G. Collingwood (1854-1932) and contemporary photographer, Einar Falur Ingolfsson of Iceland, there was an unearthly connection beyond years and “medium” between the two men.  A staunch believer in reincarnation might even ponder if they were one and the same.  Only through art may one transverse time and space, in an instant.  Side by side I was amazed at the beautiful watercolor renditions of various landscapes of a land swathed in mystery; Iceland.  And beside them; the clean cut angles of photographs, taken over a hundred years later.  A single picture could say so much, but to translate the same scene from multiple artists’ perspectives; this was enough dialogue to last ages.

Bringing the Dead Back to Life

So much was said between these two men, without ever meeting.  The seemingly quiet studio nearly reverberated with their discussion.  This journey made by Einar through the countryside in the steps of Collingwood; a veritable ‘ghost’, was not so simple at all.  As he retraced Collingwoods’ footsteps, standing where the deceased artist stood and taking evocative photos; Einar was in essence bringing the dead back to life.  To further accentuate the ghostly ambiance of this exhibit, the Sagas which retold events nearly 1000 years old; seemed to add to the ghostly whispers reverberating all around me.  This shared artistic experience, embodied the human experience.  It showed that we are all connected despite color, race, sex, age, nationality, time and space.  Art was the World Wide Web before it ever truly existed.  

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Painting by Catrin Walz Stein

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