"The Weather Diaries" explores the influence of traditions and the natural environment, is exhibited at the Danish Cultural Center in Beijing. The exhibition is created by artist duo Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer, and it features both poetic photographs and installations created in close collaboration with twelve artists and designers from Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Over the course of three years, Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer visited the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland to explore the influence of traditions and the natural environment on local artists and fashion designers. As opposed to traditional anthropologists, who use their cameras to capture communities and their culture in a scientific manner, Cooper & Gorfer transform their observations into poetic stories told through images. They turn their impressions into staged photographs, adding layers of color, textures and symbolism.

Cooper & Gorfer consists of the two artists Sarah Cooper (USA‚ SE 1974) and Nina Gorfer (Austria,1979). Their collaboration began in 2006. They live and work in Gothenburg and Berlin. Cooper & Gorfer have had several solo exhibitions, among others, at Hasselblad Center Gothenburg and Kulturhuset Stockholm. They were awarded the Swedish Art Book Award for both SEEK Volume 01 Iceland and My Quiet Gold. Their latest book, The Weather Diaries (published by Gestalten, Berlin) came out in March 2014, coinciding with the opening of the exhibition at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt.  www.coopergorfer.com 

The Weather Diaries had its premiere at Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt in 2014 as the center piece of the 3rd Nordic Fashion Biennale. They have  since been exhibited at the National Museum of Photography (Denmark), Nordic House (Feroe Islands), CODA Museum (The Netherlands), the Nordic House in Reykjavik as well as  the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle.

Participating designers and artists: Barbara I Gongini (FO), Bibi Chemnitz (GL), Cooper & Gorfer (US, AT), Guðrun & Guðrun (FO), Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir a.k.a. Shoplifter (IS), Jessie Klemmann (GL), JÖR by Guðmundur Jörundsson (IS), Kría (IS), Mundi (IS), Najannguaq Lennert (GL), Nikolaj Kristensen (GL), and STEiNUNN (IS).

Courtesy of the artists and The Danish Cultural Center, edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO