Playing with myself

Telma Har is an artist from Iceland, born in 1985. She lives and works in the capital area. She studied in the School of Photography in Iceland. Her practice centers on photographic self-portraiture, using collage and performance to explore identity, gender, and self-construction. She uses her own body as both subject and material, cutting, repeating, and reassembling photographic fragments into layered compositions that move between portrait, performance, and object.

Long before she began using self-portraiture, she was fascinated by the possibility of becoming someone else. Photography offered a way to inhabit alternative versions of herself, not by hiding, but by transforming the familiar into something strange. Colour is never decorative in her work. It is emotional. She is drawn to saturated colour because it allows me to build worlds that feel more psychologically truthful than the muted reality around her.

The act of cutting never feels destructive to her. It feels reparative. She is not trying to restore it to what it once was, but allowing it to become something new. She thinks of making not only as an act of construction, but as an act of care. Through cutting, stitching and rebuilding, the image gradually becomes something she can let go of. It no longer belongs solely to her; it becomes an independent object carrying traces of experience, transformation and attention. 


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Person lying on the floor with legs raised straight up, wearing a black outfit, with a light background.
Black and white photo of a woman standing against a plain wall, looking upward. She is wearing a textured long-sleeve top and shorts, with a hollow, cage-like structure surrounding her hips and a large knotted object hanging between her legs.
A woman lying on a colorful bed, surrounded by various patterned and textured fabrics and clothes, with blonde hair, wearing a lavender satin blouse, purple pleated skirt, and blue lace-stocking shoes, covering her face with her hand.
A woman with blonde hair in a blue dress kneels on a blanket in a park, holding a doll, with a cityscape of ornate buildings in the background.
A collage of intertwined human bodies, mostly women, in various poses with tattoos and patterned clothing, forming an abstract sculpture.
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A person with long dark hair, horns on their head, and a tail laying on the ground with their face turned away, in a surreal and artistic setting.
TelmaHar_Persist_Collage_2026.jpg
A woman lying on a bed surrounded by colorful, patterned fabrics and clothing, with a symmetrical, kaleidoscope-like effect.
A human torso with the back facing up, set against a black background.
Two women are sleeping on a pile of colorful and patterned fabrics, dressed in shimmering gown-like dresses with long hair.
A person lying on top of a large pile of colorful, patterned fabrics and clothing on a white surface, with another bundle of colorful ribbons and materials nearby.
A surreal collage featuring multiple mirrored images of women with various clothing and accessories, including a woman in a light blue dress and pearls, a woman in a red outfit, and a woman with blonde hair. The collage includes overlapping patterns,
A woman with brown hair and a golden necklace is touching noses with a large white bust sculpture of a face with curly hair.
A kaleidoscopic image of a woman with long blonde hair in a leopard print body suit laying on a variety of animal print fabrics, creating symmetrical mirrored patterns.
Collage of women with various hairstyles, wearing colorful and patterned clothing, with a fish and nature-themed accessories, set against a plain background.
A woman with elaborate braided hair and wearing a black, embroidered blouse, sitting in a cluttered room filled with books, vinyl records, and electronic equipment, illuminated by a focused light source.