The WINDOW at Brynja’s studio in Hafnarstræti 88, downtown Akureyri, has gone on women’s strike.

It´s October 24th, 1975. The window shows a snapshot of a home. The housewife, who also works at the fish freezing plant, has just stopped her “household duties” to join the women´s protest march. She wants gender equality, equal pay and equal value for women´s and men´s work. At first, she was in doupt if she should go, “what difference would she anyhow make?” But then she felt in her heart that she needed to attend and stand by herself.

Strong emotions washed over her. A mix of sorrow, sense of justice, anger, and longing for her mother and grandmother. “Blessed be their memory”. She sat down and lit a cigarette. Her youngest daughter would soon be coming home — she always babysat for the neighbor after school. She inhaled the smoke, brushed invisible dust off her kitchen smock, and gazed thoughtfully out the window. She felt the fire grow within her. “YES, she mattered — her contribution mattered, not to mention that of her foremothers, her contemporaries, and her daughters!”
She heard her girl come bustling in — ten years old, small but full of spirit. She looked at the clock; “there was still time”. She stood up, stubbed out the cigarette, turned off the stove, unplugged the iron, hung up the kitchen smock, and hurried into the hallway where the little one was taking off her jacket.

“Come on,” she said firmly. “We’re going on women’s strike!”

The WINDOW at Hafnarstræti 88 is a joint project done by the sisters Brynja Harðardóttir Tveiten, visual artist, and Áslaug Harðardóttir Tveiten, who runs the ornament shop “Fröken Blómfríður.” The window is an ever changing project depending on what´s going on each time and is an ideal destination for walks and field trips. It is supposed to make passersby slow down, spark curiosity and reflection among them not to mention to create joy and encourage conversations.