Island Zombie: Iceland Writings

by Roni Horn

An evocative chronicle of the power of solitude in the natural world

I’m often asked, but have no idea why I chose Iceland, why I first started going, why I still go. In truth I believe Iceland chose me. ―from the introduction

Contemporary artist Roni Horn first visited Iceland in 1975 at the age of nineteen, and since then, the island’s treeless expanse has had an enduring hold on Horn’s creative work. Through a series of remarkable and poetic reflections, vignettes, episodes, and illustrated essays, Island Zombie distills the artist’s lifelong experience of Iceland’s natural environment. Together, these pieces offer an unforgettable exploration of the indefinable and inescapable force of remote, elemental places, and provide a sustained look at how an island and its atmosphere can take possession of the innermost self.

Island Zombie is a meditation on being present. It vividly conveys Horn’s experiences, from the deeply profound to the joyful and absurd. Through powerful evocations of the changing weather and other natural phenomena―the violence of the wind, the often aggressive birds, the imposing influence of glaciers, and the ubiquitous presence of water in all its variety―we come to understand the author’s abiding need for Iceland, a place uniquely essential to Horn’s creative and spiritual life. The dramatic surroundings provoke examinations of self-sufficiency and isolation, and these ruminations summon a range of cultural companions, including El Greco, Emily Dickinson, Judy Garland, Wallace Stevens, Edgar Allan Poe, William Morris, and Rachel Carson. While brilliantly portraying nature’s sublime energy, Horn also confronts issues of consumption, destruction, and loss, as the industrial and man-made encroach on Icelandic wilderness.

Filled with musings on a secluded region that perpetually encourages a sense of discovery, Island Zombie illuminates a wild and beautiful Iceland that remains essential and new.

Genres: Travel, Art, Nonfiction, Poetry, Essays, Environment

256 pages, Hardcover

Published December 1, 2020

Reviews

[emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Rainbows occur frequently here, like a franchise offering the sublime. It’s a sublime that’s lost its hold on brevity and improbability; a beauty and perfection that enter the world wanton and probable.’

Ignore the slight (but clearly inevitable) ‘romanticisation’ of Iceland, and then it’s perfect. The photos are fucking spectacular. There’s a tiny bit of ABBA reference/story in there that felt a little out of place to me. Could have gone with Björk, and that would have made it all the more relevant/better. Sigur Rós, not good enough for Roni Horn? Aside from the stunning photographs, I enjoyed reading about the fishing and farming stories from the ‘locals’. And Roni Horn’s lighthouse stays. In any case — a very nice book to have around.

Bits that I thought was deserving to be thought about again, or a few more times maybe :

[Roni Horn loves Emily Dickinson]

‘I thought about Emily Dickinson’s travels. From the first letters she wrote she told her correspondents she didn’t go out, she didn’t want to go out, and that she would not come to visit them. Dickinson stayed home, insistently. Locking herself into her upstairs room, she invented another form of travel and went places.’

‘For the time being, Dickinson is here with me—in Iceland. For someone who stayed home she fits naturally into this distant and necessary place. Her writing is an equivalent of this unique island; Dickinson invented a syntax out of herself, and Iceland did, too—volcanoes do. Dickinson stayed home to get at the world. But home is an island like this one. And I come to this island to get at the very centre of the world.’

[Roni Horn loves Glenn Gould too]

‘When I went to the North, I had no intention of writing about it. And yet, almost despite myself, I began to draw all sorts of metaphorical allusions based on what was really a very limited knowledge of the country and a very casual exposure to it. I found myself writing… critiques, in which, for instance, the north— the idea of the north—began to serve as a foil for other ideas and values that seemed to me depressingly urban-oriented and spiritually limited. — This is from Glenn Gould as written for his self-produced radio program The Idea of North (1967).’

‘The desire to go north is an attraction to solitude, open space, subtle expressions of light and time. Vast expressions of scale and horizon. Sometimes going north is about whiteness. Sometimes it’s about darkness. I’m attracted to the darkness, it relieves me of the incessant call to visual attention. It opens interior spaces that offer untold possibilities of discovery. This darkness is really another form of light. It nurtures the wilderness inside me. That wilderness and what it takes to sustain it may be different for each of us. The fact of this wilderness, the necessity of it, is basic to individual well-being. And each of us must find a way to keep this space whole in themselves. As an artist so much of what one does is based in faith—in a belief that exceeds or ignores society’s interest. Pursuing creative instincts demands faith, endurance, and intelligence. It demands independence and simple strength as well.’

[I really like the chapter/section on fishermen x the weather]

‘I got to know Icelandic weather as a fisherman from an early age. Actually I have a nickname. I was a skipper in Ólafsvík and one day they were all going to stay in harbour except me, so I set off and then they all came after me. But then they turned back but I went on, and so I earned my nickname: Storm, Óli Storm. And I’ve always felt good out at sea even if it’s stormy. I feel good in storms.’

‘Everyone has a story about the weather. This may be one of the only things each of us holds in common. And although it varies greatly from here to there—it is finally, one weather that we share. Small talk everywhere occasions the popular distribution of the weather. Some say talking about the weather is talking about oneself. This seems to hold true in a general sense on an individual level. But for entire populations as well the weather is reflection and measure. In this century, as young as it is, we have merged into a single, global us; with each passing day we can watch as the weather actually becomes us. Weather Reports You is one beginning of a collective self-portrait.’

[isabell ☮︎︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading Roni Horn feels like being placed back on the Faroe Islands.

i recognize her way of looking at the weather – not as a backdrop, but as a force that shapes the day, the body, the mind.

it was on the Faroes that i first saw mountains up close, and where the sea stopped being a flat surface and became something alive, almost conscious.

maybe that’s why i feel drawn to Alaska – as if I’m searching for that place where i can go so far out that i find my way back to myself.

Horn writes that you are not lost because you don’t know where you are, but because where you are is not what it is.

that makes sense to me. some places change the way you see the world – and you can never go back to the way you saw it before.

[Catfish · Rating 4 out of 5]

From start to finish full of ecological, corporeal, and meteorological meditations. At times reminded me of John Muir, at times Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, and strangely, the world-making prose of Ursula K. LeGuin in the Earthsea series--I guess with the otherworldliness of Iceland, that makes sense.
I sped through it and probably should have spent more time with the interviews and the small photos.

[autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m 1/2 way through this one ...

Quite a contrast to the elegance of a short story I heard ‘in composition’ on Soundcloud this morning by a Rob Marr, a talented musician who has amplified his voice ‘sound’ with a very precise choice of words.

Here’s the link to Part 1 (of 3) of Rob’s piece, entitled ~ ‘Book of Man’.

(Best to listen to all three recordings to hear how he has shaped his ‘coming-of-age’ story in an unusual Art Nouveau kind of way.)

Enjoy >
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/v6Bym9j...

Will return with an update on this title, later.

[Laura Watt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a birthday gift from my friend Barbara, after she read this line from the introduction (page 2): "I'm often asked but have no idea why I chose Iceland, why I first started going, why I still go. In truth I believe Iceland chose me..." -- because Barbara had heard me say more or less the same thing. This is a collection of some of Roni Horn's writings about Iceland, which she has returned to frequently since her first visit in the 1970s, and her descriptions and observations still ring true -- leafing through these short essays is almost like talking with a friend about what living here is like.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 I am about to take a trip to Iceland, so I'm trying to immerse myself in other's impressions, experiences and the history and stories of this fascinating island. This book was illuminating in many ways and I loved the photos. However, it was arranged strangely. I know it was a collection of pieces written over the course of a few decades but some things were repeated.

[Will Lennox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meditative experience from start to finish. Every time you read a chapter, an essay, or even at some points, just one line, you feel transported to the unique wilderness of Iceland. Loved my trip here years back and this has made me want to go again. Protect our natural landscapes, and protect those who write about them so poetically.

[Chloe Praslicka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Iceland before reading this book - the author truly does capture the spirit and sense of Iceland. I loved the format of short entries, it felt like it gave me permission to sit and think about each and every landscape that was described. It made me wish that I was back in Iceland so that I could sit and stare out with the author.

[Alex Woodring · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book has great vignettes on the wandering mind of a traveler. Not just those who have traveled to Iceland would enjoy it. The rest of the book is fascinating for those who have fallen in love with Iceland.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roni Horn creates a compelling and lyrical portrait of Iceland from her many sojourns there over the years since she was 19. I could feel the air, the water, the weather and the wild landscape.

[megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Noga A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long love poem like no other

[Dashiell King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only once I have been to Iceland does Roni Horn’s description of Iceland mesmerize me more. Before I partook in my travels, her observations on such a place felt imaginable but alien and unreachable, nonetheless beautiful. Beauty that I can only imagine. After experiencing the journey of my own to Iceland, was I able to perceive that it was not just the vast landscape she speaks through her words that stayed truthful, but also the sound, the silence, and the melody of Iceland captivated in her essays. Her reflections are raw and vivid and can only be described when one is searching for the sense of being alive in the moment of living.