Saga-Sites – In the Footsteps of W.G. Collingwood (2007–2010)

In 1897 the British artist and antiquarian William Gershom Collingwood (1854–1932) travelled around Iceland on horseback and in ten hectic weeks he made with watercolors close to 300 paintings of places and sites immortalized in the ancient Sagas of Icelanders. The paintings, as well as photographs and drawings Collingwood made during the journey, have since been well known and admired in Iceland and most of them are owned by the National Museum. In 1899 Collinwood published about the experience the book A Pilgrimage to the Saga-Sites of Iceland, with more than 100 images.

110 years after Collingwood made his journey, Einar Falur retraced over three years his steps of in Iceland, using a 4x5 inch field camera. Using Collingwood’s work as his “guide”, he only photographed where Collingwood had painted, photographed or described the sights in his letters. With the highly objective documentation of the large-format camera Einar Falur documents his own contemporary experiences in the 21st Century, while reflecting on the 19th Century farms and people Collingwood depicts. He also works with themes like cultural pilgrimage, landscape and history in photographs, and the idea of connecting three times: of the Sagas, Collingwood’s in Iceland in 1897, and his own.

Einar Falur’s acclaimed book with the project was published in 2010, when the first exhibition was opened, in the National Museum of Iceland, during the Reykjavík Art Festival. In some instances the artist paired his photographs with watercolors and photographs by Collingwood, for comparison and explanation, while in other instances his new work stood alone. Another version of the exhibition was mounted in Scandinavia House in New York City in 2012. Smaller exhibitions of Saga-Sites have since been in various museums in Iceland and other countries. The book has been republished but sold out.