Equivocal

All events are ruled by the laws of narrative. Some events we incorporate into our own story, reflecting on them again and again as memories and retelling them in the context of a particular time and point of view. Repetition registers events, so to speak, preserving them as part of reality. However, a narrative does not only bow to the laws of the person expressing it but also those of the receiver.

Things shift, events take place in reverse order and the story is created again. A photographer intending to decisively register a time and a place in reality is thus hard pressed to prevent the viewer from filling in the gaps with his or her own imagination. What took place before or after a particular moment? What took place before or after a particular moment? What can be found outside the rectangular frame? In this sense, people either speak of the dictatorship of the viewer or the death of the author. Under the circumstances, it is remarkable that people should generally agree that some things can be defined as reality and others not. Equivocal is the concept artist Katrín Elvarsdóttir uses in her roving between fiction and reality.

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