People may have different motivations to express themselves artistically; and for Rúrí art is the language. It allows her to express herself in ways that would not have been viable through the written or spoken word. She touches on issues that matter to all of us; she raises questions concerning life and coexistence, of cosmic coherence; she challenges the relativity of objects and phenomena and queries the coordinate system that man has established to structure his surroundings. Rúrí’s art cannot be classified and labeled, it appears in the most diverse forms: sometimes cool in design, then inconceivably poetic, it puts the viewer by turns in the role of a conventional onlooker or an active participant. Her works are conceptual, in the sense that they are linked to precise ideas and based on theory or perception, but they all have a tangible and sensory aspect.

A list of all the forms of her artistic expression—such as performance, happening, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and so on—could lead us to expect a very heterogeneous oeuvre. But a closer look reveals an impressive consistency and almost unerringly logical development in her work, revolving around vital philosophical issues, terms she uses herself to describe her motivation: identity, time, cosmos, relativity and environment.

Christian Schoen, “Preface”, in: Rúrí monograph, Hatje Cantz, Ostfieldern 2011, pp.6.

Rúrí is born in Iceland in 1951.