Collected journal entries for February

4. February

There are so many hens & dogs loose here & I can’t help but think why the dogs aren’t chasing the hens? Perhaps they are so used to their presence or they get bored of chasing them. Then what about men? Don’t they ever get bored of whistling or chasing after women? I’m having difficulties seeing how the human race is supposed to be so above other living things on this planet.

(Eyja)

5. February

Róin sem leggst yfir mann við það að sitja við eld eða liggja undir berum himni og horfa á stjörnurnar er svo langt frá því sem maður er vanur. Held að þessi ró skapi öðruvísi hugsanir og samræður.

(Kári)

6. February

Chapter 1. The Annoying Day

This chapter teaches you how your parents can be annoying some times. Ok, let‘s start the story. The second day Kári had a long haircut but my parents did not allow me to have a haircut, so that was their annoying thing.

(Þorri)

6. February

TV is an urban myth here,

That no one believes in.

The kids here,

Play as if atom bombs

Never smelled like fried mushroom,

As if Wall Street never

Went bankrupt,

As if lightings are

The plastic miniature planets

Over their cribs,

And I speak as if I know hard truths,

That they don´t.

I am wrong,

I know the unnecessary truths;

They know the tree,

And I fantasize of roots,

That I have never seen.

(Vasilis)

8. February

Fór út í indjánaleik með Þorra í dag. Það er skemmtinlegt hvað krakkar eiga létt með að lifa sig inn í svona leiki og leiðinlegt hvað follorðnir eru óviljugir eða óhæfir í það.

(Kári)

9. February

Me and Flóki took a stroll up the mountain a bit, to a dried up creek that runs through grey vegetation which I suspect will transform itself to dense green forest during the rainy season, couple of months from now. Flóki brought a book to practice his reading in Icelandic and, once we find a nice spot in the shade to sit down, plows through what I can only hope is a terrible translation of Donald Duck, although I have serious suspicions about the quality of the original text. He is so calm, observing the surroundings without speaking much but once in a while uttering „wow, this is beautiful,“ “what animals are these that swim in the puddles?“ and „look how cosy this is.“

(Orri)

10. February

One week after landing

We have taken human forms,

Adjusted to Mexican standards.

Buenos días, buenas tardes

seem to do the job,

the rest is dead end smiles

and sign language.

How do I say:

´´I am white,

one day my bank

will swallow your life,

in a shotglass´´ in Spanish?

(Vasilis)

13.February

Morgunmatur með Mexicósku fjölskyldunni. Konurnar mættar klukkan hálf átta til þess að byrja að elda. Mennirnir mæta svo í matinn og þrjú mismunandi tungumál flúgja þvers og kruss yfir matarborðið. Svo sitjum við í sólinni og reynum að spjalla. Þau gera grín af skreyttu skissubókunum okkar, sem við keyptum í borginni fyrir 100 pesos.

(Kári)

13. February

Flóki: Where is Kári?

Þorri: He is thinking. Don´t interrupt him.

20. February

Made the mistake yesterday of taking my shirt off for half an hour (or was it an hour?) during „art class“ with Þorri. I might as well have taken a nap in a microwave. Despite multiple coatings of aloe and marinating my back in Mexican yogurt I have hardly been able to move today.

(Orri)

21. February

In the city I bought a magazine which I thought would be an easy text to learn Spanish… Turns out it was a women’s magazine about giving birth, racing children, lovemaking & such. We had a good laugh about it. Come to think of it, it’s probably more useful, maybe not the best starter conversation topic, but more important than picking the right colour of a dress. Here in Mexico girls under my age are having children. In the society that I was raised in having a kid so early equals losing your personal life & hope for any future… I’m not particularly fond of either extremes (I’m not comfortable deciding the Mexican view on the topic). I’ll put this thought at the back of my mind & let it brew.

Eyja

22. February

Have, as of yet, not been as inspired as I had hoped for. Maybe it takes longer for the urban and academic noise that I´ve been living with for these past years to quiet down? Hope I´m not too old to be inspired by new things and able to channel them into creative energy…

(Orri)

23. February

Took a walk along crooked dirt roads across the valley that splits this town into sections, past three-story villas and few square metre shacks of rusty iron, leftover wood and bamboo. These two architectural styles shamelessly coexist here side by side, a gardener is watering the roses of the upper class while on the other side of the fence children – mostly indigenous - pee in the open sewer that runs between these two homes. I wonder if the visibility of this savage inequality is unhealthier than in the cities I know, where the economic status of the inhabitants is neatly divided between neighbourhoods so that we can exist almost solely within our own class. Or if this blunt coexistence of absurd wealth and brutal poverty possibly breeds a different kind of numbness and/or acceptance?

(Orri)

24. February

One of the things I was going to do during our time here is to finish the editing of photographs for my next book and draft some sequencing ideas. Although I needed time off this work in order to distance myself from the logic with which I approached it in my MFA program, I now feel an urge to get back to it.

(Orri)

26. February

I took a walk to a lake, for some quiet alone time (with saying this I realize to my horror what I’m turning into… an adult), when a bee comes over to smell me. Hoping to find something sweet & leaves disappointed.

(Eyja)

26. February

Shooting list:

the dogs

the garbage

the homemade garbage cans tied to poles and fences around town

paths

villas and shacks

fences and gates around the villas and shacks

tangled branches of the dry forest

the children

storefronts/bodegas…

(Orri)

27. February

Art & creation seem to be the main conversation topic since we came here. Some voices louder than others. Questions are raced about how to live one’s life? How to become an artist? Sacrifices you should make & people or personalities worthy of the title. I have the idea that some people are artists & some people make art. One is not better than the other. Some may prefer one or the other & people will always have different tastes & opinions. Take note that this is just my idea, I’m giving you a glimpse into the little world inside my head. You don’t have to agree, your world is probably very different to mine.

(Eyja)

28. February

This morning mom brought up the question why I wanted to be here. The first thing that popped in my mind was about growing as a person. Sometimes I felt a little robbed of my time by jobs or chores. But these things also help a person grow. So I had to change my answer. I wanted to learn how to teach myself. To nurture & expand my interest & hobbies. The trouble wasn’t lack of time only but making use of time also. It dawned on me that this was something that wouldn’t just come with time but had to be constantly worked on.

(Eyja)