For those in the know, the name [Jónsi](https://www.instagram.com/iamjonsi/?hl=en) conjures up memories of Sigur Ros, an ensemble whose songs have a knack for rich, larger than life, emotional soundscapes which sound like they could score your next favorite movie—which a lot of them ended up doing. Their music has appeared in movies like _The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou_, _Vanilla Sky_, Disney’s _Earth_, as well as trailers for _Children of Men,_ and _Slumdog Millionaire._
Anyone who listens to their compositions would agree that the band is artistic, they took music to places where it hasn’t been before. Even going as far as creating their own language (“Hopelandic”). So, it should come as no surprise to hear about a solo exhibition celebrating Jónsi’s art opening at Hollywood’s [Tanya Bonakdar Gallery](http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/).
The show runs until January 9, 2020, and explores questions like, what is the shape of sound? What does it feel like? And can we smell it? Through a series of installations, Jónsi invokes the senses by asking the viewer to question the relationship between our bodies and the vast world surrounding us.
Flaunt spoke with the artist about the inspiration behind his art show, and what sound means to him.
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**So I had read that the show is very much about the fundamental aspects of life and what experiences bring. I was curious when you’re doing the dark room, what sound experiences were you drawing from.**
In the dark room, it’s basically eight hyper directional speakers. So, when you walk under you hear them, and when you walk away from them, you don’t hear them. Really directional. I wanted it to be able to move sound. So you walk into the beam of sound and walk out of it. When I was trying the speakers out in the studio I was trying just whispering, you know, like ASMR where it is really sensory, like ticking.
**So, all the sounds you hear are human sounds, your voice?**
Yes–breathing and whispering.
**Obviously the contrast in _Whiteout_ and _Dark wave_ is so different, yet minimal in a sense. Did you feel the sounds needed to be that way, or was there some play between both works that were being created?**
I didn't expect them to be together like that. But then they sounded really nice. They are so opposite and so sensory. When you go into the dark room, it's dark but when you go out it's really bright. I really like that aspect of it.
**So, the flow is more coming from dark to the light?**
Yes–or vice versa. I like the idea that you go into a room, but there is nothing in it. There is only sound. So, you basically kind of just have to close your eyes to enjoy it fully.
**Jónsi.** Í blóma (In bloom). 2019. Sixteen-channel sound installation; fourteen horn speakers, electrical wiring, two speakers, metal, wood, acrylic paint, chrome butt plugs, cadaverine scent Sculpture: 116 x 87 x 44 inches; 294.6 x 221 x 111.8 cm Installation dimensions variable Duration: 21 minutes
Photographed by [Ala Cho](https://www.instagram.com/a.la.cho/?hl=en).
**For me, it felt like a safe place where you could be peaceful at the same time. It gave me that feeling where there’s a lot internally, but you can find space. I was curious about the two blocks, were they representative of anything in particular?**
Not really, I just wanted really big speakers there. It is functional, basically. They function as seats you can enjoy. First, I was thinking of maybe having no seats but it is kind of nice to have somewhere you can just sit and enjoy it.
**Oh, so you can sit on the speaker?**
Yes, yes. You can sit on it. When you sit on it you really feel the vibration. You can basically go on it and lay down and you can really feel it. Your head kind of vibrates.
**How do you record that? Do you have a space where you do that?**
I have space at my house and also the art studio. I have been doing sound so long, pretty much my whole life. So, it is pretty instinctual.
**That’s why this is so exciting because it is such an interesting turn. Do you feel like there was a build-up where you have to make something more tangible than just sounds? I’d love to know what experiences drew you to this?**
I’m surrounded by artists all the time, and I’ve been playing live for twenty-five years in a band. So, after playing every rock club or venue, it’s kinda nice to do something different in different spaces.
**The floral scents were very beautiful too. Are all the scents synthetic?**
Both. So basically the Cadaverine, which we have been talking about, is like a sperm smell. I have been doing perfumery for 8 years and I have hundreds of bottles of different essential oils and normal chemicals. I bought this Cadaverine and it smelled exactly like cum, and I was like ‘what the…!’
**It is weird, and incomparable to anything else.**
Right, it’s a formulation. There is some green in it. All kinds of different stuff. So, it is a formula with a lot of ingredients.
**It smells amazing, I liked it. I am getting a lot more technological and digital-era vibes from this one. The pink wire felt to me what was blooming and I thought that was an interesting contrast there. But I wanted to know what your intent was with the pink wires in particular.**
Basically, all my life I have been really instinctual. When I make music, I don’t think about things; I just channel something that feels right. Then I do this and then I put the butt plugs on... And the pink wire. Then you also start thinking about their sexuality.
I grew up in the countryside in Iceland and I came out when I was twenty-one. I didn’t know anyone was gay or lesbian or whatever until I was 20 something. I don’t know, maybe this makes you think you have to restructure society. Why is everybody different and why am I different?
**I love that because it feels like a megaphone too. That’s so awesome for that to be the ending message of the show. I really enjoy that piece. And the scent too; it gives this ethereal feel too. It is the one piece in the show that’s more cold feeling to me with the metal and speakers and whatnot. I was wondering when you of the space and each room separately, what experiences were you drawing from this room beside that. Like in contrast to the _Dark wave_ and _Whiteout_?**
I think it was kind of nice to have it in a pristine space.
**Okay. So, this one is kind of like the sculptural piece and those were spaces.**
This is definitely the sculptural element of the show basically. In the studio, it's kind of messy, but now it is in a pristine corner and pretty white room.
**Amazing. I think this is the brightest white I’ve seen. So, I really enjoyed _Whiteout_. Have you been spending time sitting on the speakers?**
Yes, all yesterday we were fine-tuning every single speaker. There are ten hidden speakers in the walls and you have to fine-tune to the room and the bass speakers.
**Have you meditated in here?**
Not yet.
**Jónsi.** Hvítblinda (Whiteout). 2019. Twelve-channel sound installation; ten speakers, two subwoofers, aluminum, LED lighting, ozone scent Dimension variable Duration: 20 minutes
Photographed by [Ala Cho](https://www.instagram.com/a.la.cho/?hl=en).
**It just feels very meditative when you walk in anyway with the sounds and everything. And I think the all whiteness, the light that is presented there is so in your face you just have to feel good.**
Yeah that is cool. And also the scent which is kind of like resin that you use, or like you said, like meditation. It's an interesting history with that it is a tree resin. Also a few other floral ozone like a molecule and a tiny hint of Icelandic distilled pine.
**And so, when you’re mixing these up do you give them the names too? Like the ozone scent, is that the mixture or the formula for each?**
This is so white and snowy and cold. Like you’re kind of in something. And outside or something.
**When you walk out in the winter?**
Yes, kind of. But I guess you’re in LA.
**I was just in Denver recently so I had that feeling and I really enjoyed the perk it gave me. I was standing outside and drinking coffee and it was 10 degrees and everyone is like “Are you okay? Do you want to come inside?” I was like no I love this!**
Exactly! It is very nice actually.
**And then the scent for _Dark wave_ is the seaweed scent…**
Yes, that is basically just Californian seaweed a tincture of it.
**Does seaweed have anything to do with the darkness of the room?**
Where I was going with the dark it was basically like you’re at the water. You’re underwater.
**So you’re using all of these elements of nature to convey, like, human senses and relationships too.**
Yes.
**I love it, it’s really great. It’s very exciting, I was reading a little about it but I didn’t read too much. It definitely is very spiritual, so I appreciate that.**
Yes, it was cool honestly. I like working with sound and smell. I like that they’re both invisible. I just like working with something when there’s nothing tangible about it. You can’t touch it, you can only experience it. You can't explain why it moves you or why this music moves you or why the scents bring these memories, and everything is invisible.
**It goes back to like the ambiance.**
It goes back to something primordial, to some roots or something else that you can't put in words. But it is, I think it’s kind of nice. It’s hard to describe and feel something when you listen to your favorite song, it’s just hard to put words to it, and I like that.
**And it’s meant to be felt but I think it’s successful when that message is communicated like that. There was a quote here that you reminded me of that I really liked. It was “hear with a feeling ear, feel with a hearing hand.” That kind of felt like the speaking tangibility you were talking about. I really love that quote and…**
It’s beautiful.
**It is, it’s really nice and I think it’s interesting because I think you did create a tangibility in a sense out of this. Even though you’re not leaving with anything or touching anything necessarily. But the blend in a way, makes it tangible. I was curious, like do you think tangibility is really necessary for touch? Or obviously there are many ways where you can experience tangibility.**
Yeah, I think it’s nice. It’s an invisible touch. Whether you hear, there’s nothing tangible, it’s nothing. Or maybe it comes from within, and yeah, I don’t know, it’s just everything is so instantaneous today, fast-moving. So it’s kind of nice when you’re just there and you said, maybe you can meditate or just be in the white room and just be alone without touching anything or doing anything. Just kind of have to be still.
Jónsi, Oral Reef, 2019, Glass butt plugs, resin, 12 x 24 x 24 inches; 30.5 x 61 x 61 cm.
Photographed by [BJ Panda Bear.](https://www.instagram.com/bjpandabear/?hl=en)
**I think my last question would be back to the scents, I don’t know why but everything, the combination. I think scents for me personally have a memory attached to them. Are there certain memories that are attached to each room for you besides the ones we’ve already discussed?**
I definitely remember I had a really strong reaction to the Cadaverine and the sperm smell. I thought that was just so shockingly real. And also, you know, of course the sea is pretty realistic. And it’s nice to feel locked in the room like you’re locked on the beach, it’s kind of nice to feel nothing in the room. And I’m just trying to recreate some kind of coldness or some ozone thing.
**Do you make your own scents too?**
Yeah!
**Oh, okay, so do you ever buy cologne or perfume?**
Yeah..no. Actually I started with the perfume thing because I didn’t like anything basically. Because I love smells, I love and hate perfumes. I usually hate them, so that’s why I started saying I can definitely do this, I should try to make my own essential oil blends then you can go to a certain threshold and you start buying synthesized aroma chemicals–more precise and more controlled perfumes in the blends. So you get really deep into that, and it’s a really really hard world to get into because perfumery and perfume work is very secretive and hard to get involved in.
It’s old fashioned but I think it's hopefully slowly changing. But, for example, if you want to learn guitar, you can just go on YouTube and find chords–this is how you do that and you can do it. With perfume it’s just like there is nothing out there, it’s really hard to buy a book about it and there’s nothing online. It’s really kind of a closed small world, and going on some forums online trying to find information is pretty hard. So I had to do it super slowly and it taught me patience through the years. Because I’m really fast and spontaneous and I have a really hard time waiting for anything. I want to see results right away.
But with the perfume, you make a blend and when you're making the blend, if you put one drop too many, you have to start again. There's no undo button. So you have to start from scratch and when you finish a blend, you have to let it mature for three months to actually see how everything mixed together. It’s so hard to make. Just waiting.
**But then when you do find something you like, and you said you were instinctual so it's an interesting blend of wanting to jump into things but then needing to slow down.**
You do all this blending. You make a horrible blend but you always learn something. You learn from every mistake. “Oh, that's why it went wrong.” Or that’s why it's bad. So you just kind of learn something every time you do a new blend. It is kind of interesting also.
Interviewed by [Nikoo Nooryani](https://instagram.com/persiancowgirl).
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Jónsi at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is on view until January 9, 2020 | 1010 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles CA 90038
