Ýrúrarí

Textiledesigner

Ýr Jóhannsdóttir is a textile designer and artist who works under the name Ýrúrarí. In her work she adventurously knits together humour, movement and craft.

During the residency at the Museum of Design and Applied Art Ýr will continue a project she started last year with The Red Cross in Iceland called Jumper with everything. The title is a reference to one of Iceland’s most famous take away “hot dog with everything”. In this project Ýr worked with jumpers that had been classified as ruined and not fit for sale.

There is always a good pile of jumpers that goes into this category at the Red Cross so this time Ýr’s aim is to get more people involved in the mission to save them. Continuing to use creative mending methods and sharing them with others will make the mending process and result more personal, more fun and more powerful.

The aim is to prolong the lives of our clothes. Not to throw them away when they start to fade or we have small accidents such as stains. Visitors can have a peak into the process and even try out some mending methods themselves.

People will be offered to “care for a jumper” and attend workshops in creative mending. These events will be advertised later. The project is part of Ýr’s final project in arts education at Iceland University of the Arts.

Ýr’s work has previously been exhibited in Reykjavík for example in í Gallerý Port, Ekkisens og Flæði as well as Textile Art center í New York. Her work has been purchased by Textiel Museum in the Netherlands, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Germany and the Museum of International folk Art in New Mexíkó. Her work has been featured for example in Vogue.com, Designboom, Cultured Magazine and Die Zeit. The artists Erykah Badu, Tierra Whack, Noel Fielding og Miley Cyrus have ordered work from her.

Photos: Axel Sigurðsson