This text is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2022 subject of AnOther Journal:
“I took a school course on multilingual writing – I like studying about dialects and ‘anti-languages’. Language is so steeped in tradition, generations, legal guidelines, shows of self. As a white lady I’ve the angle of somebody on the ‘proper aspect’ of multilingualism. I’ve by no means needed to endure double requirements or mistreatment like different bilingual individuals. I’ve two personas – some buddies solely know my Icelandic aspect and will be shocked by my English. I attempt to push the Icelandic aspect as a result of I had such a tricky time studying it – youngsters are brutal. I discuss louder in English – American English – with optimism. In Icelandic there’s a exact angle. After I journal in Icelandic, it feels heartfelt and uncooked. If I have to intellectualise or work by one thing, it’s English. I write music demos in English – I do it after I’m procrastinating to really feel like I’ve achieved a state of abundance. There’s no phrase for ‘please’ in Icelandic – perhaps there’s some brute Viking reasoning however I prefer to romanticise it. Icelandic tradition has extra of a present financial system. Not well mannered, however beneficiant – I like that.”
Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, aka Doa, is enamoured with the persona-shifting energy of language. The actor, musician, filmmaker and liberal arts scholar’s surnames meld the standard Icelandic matronymic – she is the daughter of Björk – with that of her father, the visible artist Matthew Barney. It’s a household lineage that’s iron-cast in its nonconformity, elastic in its articulation of the world. From her first performing position, in Robert Eggers’s Viking epic The Northman, launched earlier this yr, Bjarkardóttir Barney is exploring smaller indie movies. In any other case, the 19-year-old is having enjoyable modelling – “an underappreciated artwork kind” – and making use of to drama faculties.
Hair: Gonn Kinoshita on the Wall Group. Make-up: Michaela Bosch at Bryant Artists. Photographic assistant: Alec Vierra. Printing: PhotoLab-NYC. Producer: Alec Charlip at Born Artists
This story options within the Autumn/Winter 2022 subject of AnOther Journal, which is on sale internationally now. Purchase a duplicate right here.
