Gloss Pics

Skotið, Reykjavik Museum of Photography

February 7

2025

The exhibition Glam Pics consists of colourful and semi-surreal photos that the artist Telma Haraldsdóttir has put together in many ways.

In her art, Telma deals with her own identity, which has been shaped by heredity, upbringing, and environment. In her work, she uses herself as a mannequin to portray certain ideas and experiences and thus interpret the idea of the self and the reality to which it belongs.

The exhibition's subject arose from speculations concerning hoarding: collecting fabrics, wigs, clothes, and other things with the aim of using them creatively, arranging different materials, and, by doing so, giving them a new life.

In the process, the image structure often changes with different installation on objects and posture to create more balance or increase chaos.

The exhibition's title, Glam Pics, refers to the beautification of one's own reality and to 19th—and 20th-century paper toys. Shiny images were printed using the lithograph technique, which children collected and glued into books.

Telma uses the camera as a tool to create unreal and abstract footage, highlighting different forms and compositions of the parts included, thus raising questions about norms and standards of beauty, gender, and status.

Her work is a photo collage cut and pasted together on paper or in an image-editing programme. The processing and finishing of Telmas's art show the viewer, at first glance, a glam version of the subject. Still, upon closer inspection, her work contains everyday objects such as hairpins, tights, or toys. Telmas's collages provide a good insight into her work as an artist, as she only uses photos, she has shot herself.