Lóa finds childlike joy in collecting vintage figurines

Icelandic artist Lóa Hlín Hjálmtýsdóttir says collecting old figurines brings her “so much joy,” according to mbl.is. She seeks out small, quirky figures, especially characters from cartoons she watched as a child.

Hjálmtýsdóttir is known for children’s books, comics and illustrations published under the name Lóaboratoríum. She is also the singer in FM Belfast. Her collection includes several hundred figurines, along with a few dolls and teddy bears.

She often visits charity and flea markets abroad, looking mainly for figures from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The 1980s are her particular focus because, as she puts it, she is an “eighties child.” She also searches at Góði hirðirinn, a second-hand shop.

Hjálmtýsdóttir said she once found an old toy shop in Paris that felt like a museum, with pieces from her childhood for sale at inflated prices. She prefers searching in person to shopping online: finding something should feel like a treasure hunt, she said, and the discovery brings out a childlike joy in her.

Asked why people collect things, she suggested it might offer a sense of security and be connected to childhood or loss, such as losing a toy. She has made an illustration of a woman placing a small figure on a shelf, captioned: “People use various ways to fill the hole in their heart.”

A longer interview with Hjálmtýsdóttir appears in Morgunblaðið’s Sunday supplement.