“I took a college course on multilingual writing – I love learning about dialects and ‘anti-languages’. Language is so steeped in culture, generations, laws, presentations of self. As a white woman I have the perspective of someone on the ‘right side’ of multilingualism. I’ve never had to endure double standards or mistreatment like other bilingual people. I have two personas – some friends only know my Icelandic side and can be surprised by my English.
– with that of her father, the visual artist Matthew Barney. It’s a family lineage that is iron-cast in its nonconformity, elastic in its articulation of the world. From her first acting role, in Robert Eggers’s Viking epic, released earlier this year, Bjarkardóttir Barney is exploring smaller indie films. Otherwise, the 19-year-old is having fun modelling – “an underappreciated art form” – and applying to drama schools.
Hair: Gonn Kinoshita at the Wall Group. Make-up: Michaela Bosch at Bryant Artists. Photographic assistant: Alec Vierra. Printing: PhotoLab-NYC. Producer: Alec Charlip at Born Artists This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2022 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale internationally now. Buy a copy