Boaz Yosef Friedman’s & Karólína Rós Ólafsdottír at Palace, Düsseldorf 2022
Exhibition text by Karólína Ólafsdóttir
The installation 'Under the Pineapple' explores myth and post-consumer ecology. The germ of
the work originated in the existential and metaphysical world presented in SpongeBob
SquarePants, where a sponge’s only dream is to work as an underwater cook in a world cluttered
with human junk and debris. Through a three part narrative the work presents a folklore from the
future: a story of the possible landscapes of extinction.
The folklore poem saga borrows language and style from Icelandic folktale tradition and from
biological descriptions of sea creatures. Folktales are defined as ‘any belief or story passed on
traditionally, especially one considered to be false or based on superstition’. This creates an
interesting framework to look at things that are happening, how they will be perceived as, and
what the folklore of the future might look like, where the oral tales of real sea creatures and
television representations become confused. The three characters, Sponge, Squid and Starfish,
travel through the barren landscape of scrap yarn creatures, found cardboard box beaches and
black flower like shapes.
Bibliography
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "squid". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Dec. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/animal/squid.
Hallmundsson, May and Hallburg, Icelandic Fold and Fairy Tales (Reykjavik: Iceland Review, 1987)
Galleymor, Isabel, The Starfish, (United Kingdom: PN Review, 232 Volume 43 Number 2 November - December 2016)
‘Starfish’, National Geographic, [accessed 23 March 2022]
‘Sponge’, Wikipedia, 2022 [accessed 23 March 2022]
Special thanks to SpongeBob SquarePants, animated tv series, Úlfur Logason for his devotion and support, Xan Hughes’ yarn contribution and Deptford Creekside
Discovery Centre’s walk in the river Thames.
the work originated in the existential and metaphysical world presented in SpongeBob
SquarePants, where a sponge’s only dream is to work as an underwater cook in a world cluttered
with human junk and debris. Through a three part narrative the work presents a folklore from the
future: a story of the possible landscapes of extinction.
The folklore poem saga borrows language and style from Icelandic folktale tradition and from
biological descriptions of sea creatures. Folktales are defined as ‘any belief or story passed on
traditionally, especially one considered to be false or based on superstition’. This creates an
interesting framework to look at things that are happening, how they will be perceived as, and
what the folklore of the future might look like, where the oral tales of real sea creatures and
television representations become confused. The three characters, Sponge, Squid and Starfish,
travel through the barren landscape of scrap yarn creatures, found cardboard box beaches and
black flower like shapes.
Bibliography
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "squid". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Dec. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/animal/squid.
Hallmundsson, May and Hallburg, Icelandic Fold and Fairy Tales (Reykjavik: Iceland Review, 1987)
Galleymor, Isabel, The Starfish, (United Kingdom: PN Review, 232 Volume 43 Number 2 November - December 2016)
‘Starfish’, National Geographic,
‘Sponge’, Wikipedia, 2022
Special thanks to SpongeBob SquarePants, animated tv series, Úlfur Logason for his devotion and support, Xan Hughes’ yarn contribution and Deptford Creekside
Discovery Centre’s walk in the river Thames.