‘Tears move through the work as both material and metaphor. Birna observes that the first tear is never to be trusted. It comes before the feeling, like distant lightning before thunder, suggesting that emotion unfolds over time and that initial reactions are only part of the story. In her work crying is not a gesture of individual weakness but is rather a bodily catalyst of a shared transcendental motion that moves through and beyond her. one tear is an ocean, and the ocean is a tear; they ebb and flow, reflecting the inseparability of the world around us and the currents inside us. Tears become instruments for weighing and balancing experience, for holding vulnerability, sensation, and action in tension.

The ocean can be read as a system of knowledge, where each drop carries both chemical and emotional weight. Crying shares the anatomy of the sea; both hold salt and memory. In All streams lead to the sea and every tear seeks its mother, seawater slowly seeps through a clay vessel, as if weeping. Each tear marks a change by crystalising on the surfaces, making feelings visible. What the vessel cannot hold is allowed to pass through, leaving only its trace, like a quiet record of time and change.’

Excerpt from the exhibition text, written by Helena Solveigar Aðalsteinsbur.