Gift to the SHH - work by Julius Birgi Jóhannsson

On 11 November, the Centre for Communication received a visit from Julius Birgir Jóhannsson. The occasion was the handover of the artwork Hendur, made by Julius in collaboration with Marel ehf. and Mótefni ehf. The work is composed of 36 depictions of Julius' hands, representing the Icelandic fingerprint alphabet. Marel ehf. oversaw the production of the sites and Mótefni ehf. supported the project by participating in the cost of the materials.

The idea for the project came up when Julius noticed during a sign language course at SHH that other students had difficulty recognizing the formation of their fingerprints from two-dimensional images. His goal was therefore to create a work that could also be used as a teaching tool for those learning sign language. The stands are matte, but Júlíus states that: “shiny objects can disturb those with visual impairments.” Each stand is marked with an appropriate letter in Icelandic writing and dotted font, making it a very accessible teaching tool. All the hands are in different colours but the thinking behind it was that children could possibly more easily connect each letter to a certain colour.

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