An exhibition called “Ef hval rekur á fjörur manns / Out of the blue” was open from the 24th to 26th of November 2023 in Hlemmur, Reykjavík. The exhibition was the harvest from a 13 week project about the topic “whales”. The title of the exhibition refers to an old Icelandic law about what to do if a whale washes on your land from the year 1281. It is also a reference to saying in Icelandic “Ýmislegt rekur á fjörur manns” which means that something unexpected arrives to you. Like we got the topic of whales surprisingly brought to us.

Throughout the exhibition the visitors are able to explore the intricate layers of a whale’s existence, their travels, songs and array of it’s destinies, spanning from the event of a whale fall to the tragic consequences from whaling.

Through a design context, this exhibition explores the diverse destinies that fall upon a whale – a testament to its significance in the context of our world above the surface.