Parachute in Iceland (South)
1996

In 1996, Gabriel Orozco traveled to Iceland to make a site-specific work for a two-person exhibition with artist Rirkrit Tiravanija at the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik. Using a parachute that he brought to Iceland from New York City, Orozco composed a group of photographs shot from each of the four cardinal points—north, south, east, and west—including Parachute in Iceland (South). To make the photographs, he secured the parachute at one end so that it hovered in the wind, just above the black volcanic terrain. Here, an object that we are accustomed to seeing against the backdrop of the sky instead dominates an expanse of Icelandic land, casting an attenuated shadow on the ground while also appearing to connect to a plume of clouds overhead.