Ýr Jóhannsdóttir is a textile designer and artist who works under the name Ýrúrarí. In her work she adventurously knits together humor, movement and craft. Ýr has shared her methodology through workshops where participants work with damaged sweaters from the Red Cross and bring them back to life.
During the residency at the Museum of Design and Applied Art Ýr has continue a project she started last year with The Red Cross in Iceland called Jumper with everything. The title is a reference to one of Iceland’s most famous take away “hot dog with everything”. In this project Ýr worked with jumpers that had been classified as ruined and not fit for sale.
There is always a good pile of jumpers that goes into this category at the Red Cross so during the residency. Ýr´s aim was to get more people involved in the mission to save them. By sharing her knowledge and creative approach the mending process has become more powerful, fun and diverse. The results of this collaboration with the public as well as transformed jumpers by Ýr will be on display during DesignMarch.
The project is part of Ýr´s final project in arts education at Iceland University of the Arts.
During DesignMarch, visitors can take part in creative mending workshops from Friday to Sunday from 12-18.
Ýr´s work has previously been exhibited in Reykjavík for example in í Gallerý Port, Ekkisens og Flæði as well as Textile Art center í New York. Her work has been purchased by Textiel Museum in the Netherlands, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Germany and the Museum of International folk Art in New Mexíkó. Her work has been featured for example in Vogue.com, Designboom, Cultured Magazine and Die Zeit. The artists Erykah Badu, Tierra Whack, Noel Fielding og Miley Cyrus have ordered work from her.