Erla S. Haraldsdottir - My Mother's Dream

My Mother's Dream / My Dream is an artist s book by Erla S. Haraldsdottir, published on the occasion of a solo exhibition at Norrtalje Konsthall, Sweden. The book reproduces a dream recorded in a diary entry by the great-grandmother of the artist Erla S. Haraldsdottir. A facsimile of the diary entry is included, as well as translations of the dream from Icelandic into Swedish, German, English and IsiNdebele. The reverse side of the book has blank lined pages that invite readers to record their own dreams in the book in effect to participate in recording of memories of dreams. In recent years, Erla S. Haraldsdottir has created several series of paintings that depict members of her father's branch of the family. Genesis, 2016 at Konstepidemien, Gothenburg, Sweden, and Patterns of the Family, 2019 at Reykjanes Art Museum, Iceland, are two examples. My Mother s Dream, 2021, takes the engagement of representing her relatives to a deeper, more intimate level. Haraldsdottir then shares a memory of her ancestor Svanhildur's encounter with the hidden people (huldufolkid), an experience that was highly personal and very particular to the context of Iceland in the late 19th century, where belief in the hidden people was prevalent.