Wool

Reality and the imagined meet in the works of Judith Amalía Jóhannsdóttir and Maja Siska.

Maja Siska’s emphasis is on the material and the craftsmanship. She wants us to truly sense the work through our eyes and and with our hands. Similarly, she wants us to feel the origins of the material and the craftmanship. The focus is on the process itself.

“In German, there is the word ‘begreifen,’ which means both to touch and to understand. I strongly relate to that.”

Judith Amalía is fascinated by the magical moment, the instant when a gateway opens from the everyday world into the realm of dreams and fairy tales. Tiaras and magic wands are traditional symbols of fairy tales. The core of her work is handspun wool, created through free flow and lace knitting, where each stitch is crafted according to a predetermined pattern. This creates tension between two opposites, the magical and the everyday.

“The true fairy tales are not distant, they happen here and now. It is up to us to notice them and to turn every moment into a magical moment.”

Judith Amalía Jóhannsdóttir is born and raised in Ísafjörður and works as a textile designer and crafts teacher. She studied costume design at the Brera Academy in Milan, worked as a costume designer in Icelandic theaters  and graduated in textile design from the Reykjavík School of Visual Arts in 2020. Since 2022, she has been working as a textile teacher at Grandaskóli and has released instructional videos on crafts under the title “Textíll í mynd” (Textiles on Film). In 2012, she co-founded the yoga clothing brand Atala with two others. Judith Amalía engages in spinning and weaving and has a special interest in the possibilities of Icelandic wool. In her work, Judith Amalía has focused on Icelandic craft traditions and their place in contemporary society. The thread is a key form in Judith’s work, and she strives to spin threads from various raw materials. She lives in Reykjavík.

Maja Siska is born and raised in Germany. She graduated with master’s degrees in architecture from Arizona State University in 1996. She has received grants for participation in the Écoles d’Arts Américaines in Fontainebleau, France, and has pursued photography, oil painting, and hand spinning for many years. She was the founder of the artist group ART 11 in Kópavogur. She has been a member of SÍM (Association of Icelandic Visual Artists) since 2009 and has focused on textiles since 2014. She is part of the groups Spunasystur and Þingborg Ullarvinnsla and serves as the event manager for Ullarvikan (Wool Week). She has given lectures on the historical and cultural significance of wool in Iceland, both abroad and at home.