Metamorphosis - Hildur Yeoman and Saga Sigurðardóttir

Metamorphosis is a exhibition of collaboration between Hildur Yeoman, Fashion designer and illustrator and Saga Sigurdardottir, photographer. They're installation will be based on the ideas they use in their work in fashion and will be on display in Sverrissal.


Boundaries between art forms can be blurred. Designers, architects, photographers and artists often work on these boundaries and utilise the visual qualities of different forms. In the exhibition Metamorphosis, light is shed onto the collaboration between Hildur Yeoman, fashion designer and fashion illustrator, and Saga Sigurðardóttir, photographer, who both have received well-earned attention for their work in their short carriers.


Their exhibition in Sverrissalur combines Hildur‘s colourful design and Saga‘s magical photographs in an expressive and vibrant installation. They build up an atmosphere with texture, colour and sound which results in a strong visual experience that echoes the spirit of the times. The exhibition‘s basic theme belongs to the world beneath the surface of the sea, where the rhythm is soft and floating, but also cold and dark. There, one finds a magical world of goddesses and legends that dwell on the boundaries of the real and the surreal. Materials and use of colour reflect the world of the deep. The viewer comes face to face with a world in the making, at the very moment when something new is being created, just as being at the centre of the fast-moving world of fashion.

Hildur and Saga have worked together before in the exhibition Garden of Enchantment in Gallery Kling & Bang in 2010. Bright colours, romanticism and nostalgia characterise their work where Icelandic nature and crafts tradition meet the fashion spirit of the times and influences from various directions, such as film, classical paintings and music, to name a few, can be detected. In this exhibition, they take their collaboration a step further where the manifestations of various powerful female characters are engaged with in a vibrant installation.

Hildur Yeoman graduated with a BA degree in fashion design from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts in 2006 alongside internships with Jonathan Saunders in London and Yazbukey in Paris in 2004. Hildur designed an accessories collection where she places traditional handicrafts in a new context. The collection consists of colourful necklaces, head decorations and bags which take the form of poodles and other animals. She premiered her second clothes collection Cherry Bomb at the Reykjavík Fashion Festival (RFF) in 2011 and received good reviews. In the last few years, Hildur has made a name for herself as a fashion illustrator alongside her design and has illustrated for various designers here at home and abroad.

Saga Sigurðardóttir lives and works in London where she recently completed a BA degree in fashion photography at the London College of Fashion. Alonside her studies, she has worked on varied projects and created a unique place for herself within the profession. She has worked with several varied designers in a short career and her photographs have appeared in big fashion magazines such as Dazed and Confused, Dazed Digital and Topshop 214. Saga‘s photographs are characterized by a personal style with great narrative joy where interesting people appear enveloped in colourful design.

The exhibition now in Hafnarborg was part of the Nordic Fashion Biennale held in Seattle in the United States this September. The music composition accompanying the exhibition is by Þórður Sigurðsson and the exhibition‘s curator is Klara Þórhallsdóttir.