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Geimdreki

Geimdreki

Ásmundur Sveinsson


  • Year : 1957
  • Height : 200 cm
  • Width : 90 cm
  • Category : Skúlptúr
  • Sub-category : Málmskúlptúr

Asmundur’s Space Dragon and other works on a similar theme, such as Geimþrá/Yearning for Space, specifically evoke the “Space Race,” which was at fever pitch in the 1950s and 60s. The Soviet satellite Sputnik was launched into space in the autumn of 1957, and several months later the bitch Laika was sent into orbit aboard Sputnik II. These events attracted huge public interest, and they are reflected in Ásmundur’s art. He spoke of it to editor Matthías Johannessen in Bókin um Ásmund: “Geimdrekinn (Space Dragon) is made of iron, with a gaping maw and white fangs, and at the top is a little spherical moon. ‘When the US astronauts came here this spring [1967] before they went to the moon,’ Ásmundur commented, ‘I showed them this sculpture and pointed out the gaping jaws: That is the danger on the way to the moon, I said. Yes, they said, you go that way to the moon, but we have to go there another way. Fortunately they didn’t get caught in the jaws.’”

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