The Icelandic creative takes us behind-the-scenes of the weird and wonderful worlds she creates on screen
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“My main goal is to take people into another world/dimension even if it’s just for 15 seconds,” explains Agusta Yr about her off-the-wall videos and the artist and director certainly succeeds.
Every time you click play, you could be jolted headfirst right through the screen, speeding through a fantasy-scape with a legion of women dancing on a snowy mountain top (an Opening Ceremony project), or watching a line-up of rotating 3D heads from Gogo Graham’s AW19 Eternal Peep Show. Or maybe it’s something else that also stops you in your tracks; the beauty of it, beyond the eclectic make-up and hair, is that there’s no predicting what Yr might come up with next.
What the London-based Icelandic creative’s work does share is a refreshing irreverence and plenty of meme-tastic qualities. Her Instagram feed @iceicebabyspice is filled with original stills and films of herself dressed up in bold looks or digitally layered into imaginative situations with lol captions, plus her own twist on viral memes like ‘gonna tell my kids’. Yr’s editing, scanning, and animation expertise is admirable, while modelling has proved to be another creative outlet. From appearing in Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty show to starring in ‘Wear Me Like Water’ a film by frequent collaborator Sinéad O'Dwyer, when asked what impact she thinks her work has on her audience, she replies “I think my audience mostly just wants to see me naked.”
Here Yr breaks down the role beauty plays in her work and personal life, her go-to products, and why she’d give Kim Kardashian her pinky toes.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and where you grew up?
Agusta Yr: I moved to Miami aged two. My parents wanted to make sure my siblings and I spoke Icelandic so it was a rule for us to only speak Icelandic to them at home. It was this little Icelandic house in the middle of Miami-Dade. Growing up, I wanted to be a pop star, dancer, and model – two have come true in some shape or form.
What is it you do and how did you get into it?
Agusta Yr: I’m an artist, video director, 3D connoisseur, model, and meme queen. I just love to drink dumb bitch juice. I have always been creative and always went the extra mile in school – in the fourth grade we had to write a paper about UFOs and I sculpted my own UFO as well just for funsies (total teachers pet vibez).
Why did you decide to become a director and artist?
Agusta Yr: There are lots of photographers in the family and I loved going to set with them and learning. I studied photography but got really bored with it so I started experimenting with other mediums. I ended up loving video, animation, and 3D because I love a challenge and need to be challenged in some way daily.
What role does beauty and the body play in your work?
Agusta Yr: They’re honestly what drives me in my personal work. Beauty, the body and my work all tie together into the image-based world we live in today. I like to emphasise how social media and the internet doesn’t necessarily affect us but how apparent they are without us noticing them much.
What are some of your favourite projects you’ve worked on?
Agusta Yr: Agu’s Icy Spicy Cavity is going to be a web series ideally, but only the pilot has been made. It’s about my first time watching porn as a seven-year-old, touching on a lot of things growing up and why I kept on watching. This video was made in a mad old animation software that is quite fickle and crashes every 10 minutes but I love the outcome and how I was able to push the software’s limits.
No Agency Digitals was a fun one because when I work with my agency, it’s all chill and I’m free to do what I want. This was a project with 3D scanned heads but I didn’t want to make it like the others I had made. I added a little comedy to it by having the girls in a line-up stating their names as it was for the agency’s new digitals.
For Moschino, I got to work with Jeremy Scott which was insane because I’ve loved him and his work for years (I owned some of his Adidas collabs when I was younger). For this project, the girls were scanned and then it’s mostly all post-production, rendering out the 3D scans, cleaning them up, and then building spaces for them to exist in.
What’s been your career highlight so far and what do you hope to accomplish going forward?
Agusta Yr: There have been so many amazing projects I worked on last year but the one that means the most to me is signing with my agency No Agency New York. They have helped me develop so much with work and as a person and I’m so thankful – shout out to Alex.
Describe your beauty aesthetic in three words.
Agusta Yr: I am baby.
What does beauty mean to you?
Agusta Yr: Beauty is ephemeral and the most subjective thing in the world. It is literally in the eye of the beholder.
What’s your earliest beauty-related memory?
Agusta Yr: Walking around our house in Miami in my pyjamas and platform sandals with a baby blue Gap backpack with glitter stars all over it when I was about four or five. I’d filled it with all my nail polishes so I could paint my nails sat in front of our TV. As I was walking over, I tripped and all the nail polishes fell out. I thought I was all good until I saw that the glitter swampy Shrek green colour had exploded all over my parents’ brand new beige sofa. My mum screamed, yelled, and cried hysterically as we could not get it out. That side of the sofa was covered with a forest green throw blanket for about 10 years. Whoopsies.
How do you assert your identity and experiences through your beauty and hair?
Agusta Yr: Through my go-to face which is a natural beat. I do some pink eyeshadow and some gems in my inner corner when I’m going out. My make-up and hair routine hasn’t really changed much since I was 12, a few updates here and there. A few years ago, I always did a lot of make-up and stuff to my hair, now I’m just happier with who I am in general and like a more natural look.
What beauty, skin and hair products are you using the most right now?
Agusta Yr: MAC always for day-to-day make-up, I’m never without my ’Peaches’ blush and ’Show Gold’ highlighter. I use this Icelandic product called Penzim on my face day and night – it’s like an organic magic gel and I’ve been loving Nip + Fab’s Glycolic Fix Daily Cleansing Pads and Mario Badescu Vitamin C Serum. I usually don’t do much when it comes to hair but I recently bought Function of Beauty custom shampoo and conditioner and I can’t recommend it enough.
What’s your favourite smell and why?
Agusta Yr: I love the smell of weed. I don’t smoke anymore but every time someone walks by me smoking or I smell it I sniff hard.
Which fictional character do you most relate to and why?
Agusta Yr: Well Trisha Paytas is real but seems like a figment of my imagination and I adore her.
What is the future of beauty?
Agusta Yr: Face filters. They are so popular on Instagram and I feel like if there was a way to wear them in person, people would love that. Skin smoothing, some butterflies, and lashes.
How do you want to change the world?
Agusta Yr: The amount of hate online is really disgusting. I’ve been noticing it more and more recently because I’ve fallen in love with TikTok, people are really out here just making fun of others and it’s really disheartening. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of love but not enough. I sound like that one girl from Mean Girls, but cyberbullying is not cool.
It’s the year 2121. Climate change has caused all humans to genetically mutate. Would you rather have two heads or four eyes? Why?
Agusta Yr: Two heads, imagine how fun selfies would be? The possibilities are endless.
You have the ability to live in a video game. Which would it be and why?
Agusta Yr: Mary-Kate and Ashley: Sweet 16 - Licensed to Drive. I used to play this all the time and it just seems like a great place to let off some steam: you just got your driver’s license and you’re planning your Sweet 16 party with your friends. What more could you ask for?
It’s 30 years from now. You stumble home at 3 am and catch your reflection in the fridge door. What do you look like?
Agusta Yr: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills character Erika Jayne plus some botched vibes.
You have to replace your body with that of an animal or a mythological creature. What do you go for and why?
Agusta Yr: A fairy so I could fly around and leave sparkles in my trail.
You have to donate a feature/limb of your body to an icon of yours. You get nothing in return. What feature/limb do you give and why?
Agusta Yr: I would give Kim Kardashian my pinky toes because it always looks like hers are missing.