“The most important thing in friendship is building trust”

The exhibition Sýningin Hæ/Hi: Designing Friendship opened in Seattle in the beginning of October where six Icelandic designers and designteams met their US counterparts.  The exhibition was originally planned for DesignMarch 2020 and at last, two years later, the designers joined in Iceland in May where they premiered their works at the DesignMarch festival 2022. Now they met in Seattle. 

Hæ/Hi opened in Mara Bianco Gallery downtown Seattle and was a part of the Taste of Iceland festival in the city. 

A selection of designers and design teams from the friendship cities of Seattle and Reykjavík exhibit works based on, you guessed it: friendship. How do we introduce ourselves upon first encounter? Do we reflect our personality and culture from the very beginning? How do we use our senses to acquaint and connect? What do we share and what are we curious to know?

The idea behind the exhibition sparked in 2018 from a conversation between Darin Montgomery, Seattle based founder of Urbancase and Fin, and Halla Helgadóttir, director of Iceland Design and Architecture, during a series of Taste of Iceland events held in the USA, organized by Iceland Naturally and Business Iceland.

Participating designers and design teams are:

• Agustav (IS)
• Amanda Ringstad (US)
• Fruitsuper (US)
• Gabriel Stromberg (US)
• Grain (US)
• Hanna Dís Whitehead (IS)
• Hugdetta & 1 + 1 + 1 (IS)
• John Hogan (US)
• Jonathan Junker (US)
• Ragna Ragnarsdóttir (IS)
• Ragnheiður Ösp Sigurðardóttir (IS)
• Theodóra Alfreðsdóttir (IS)
• Weekend Studio (US)
• Þórunn Árnadóttir (IS)

„Friendship is about communication, cooperation, love and respect for a fellow human being,“ says Darin Montgomery in the video that gives an insight into the project and the trip to Seattle.