While my daughter was at a workshop this morning, I sat in Rough Hands in Stroud and got lost in one of Iceland’s digitised newspaper archives.

I was surprised to come across several clippings featuring my dad. I have most of these in the attic already, but it was still a nice surprise to find them online.

Next step is to track down archival TV footage. There’s one news reel I’d love to find — my dad stepping off a tour bus with a band (I think it was Whitesnake), wearing a suit, long leather jacket and Ray-Bans.

I remember my friends saying,
“Emilie, pabbi þinn var á sjónvarpinu!”

(“Your Dad’s on TV!”)

#bitsandbobs #familyarchive #personalarchive #icelandmusicscene #foundinarchives #memorywork #culturalhistory

BITS + BOBS

Bits + Bobs is an ongoing archive-led project exploring fragments of my parents’ lives and work.

The project has grown out of loss — both of my parents passed away four months apart in 2012 — and a desire to return to that time, to understand it more fully, and to reconnect with my own sense of identity and roots.

One chapter focuses on the music scene in Iceland during the late 1980s, with other chapters emerging over time as the archive expands.

Bringing together photographs, ephemera, interviews, and other people’s memories alongside my own — including personal VHS recordings and recovered broadcast material — Bits + Bobs traces small moments, backstage stories, and cultural fragments. Some are complete, others still in progress — part recollection, part reconstruction.

The project is being developed with the intention of forming a wider public body of work, with potential outcomes including exhibition, moving image, and publication.