After Linda Sormin’s extensive installation in The China Collection of KODE 1 Art Museums of Bergen in 2011, the large-scale work was disassembled and its component parts found new temporary homes around the city. Several of Sormin’s works and shards went to the studio of artist-curator Heidi Bjørgan who later “curated” and reused Sormin’s fragments in a series of her own works, thereby joining its authorship. A dialog was created between the artists from this moment, which has progressed into 'Collision' their first duo-exhibition taking place at Entrée.
Both artists work within the expanding field of ceramics, where they playfully take advantage of, but also confront, the norms of traditional methods. Their works are comprised of layers of day-to-day ephemera, artifacts and mass-produced ceramic objects in new and temporary makeshift structures. The installations at Entrée offer an intimate encounter with aggressive yet fragile objects.
It’s a game of borrowing, sampling and replication - giving materials a second chance, as much as exploring ideas where functionality and futility are set in play.
Linda Sormin lives and works in Toronto, Canada. She was educated at Andrews University, Sheridan School of Craft & Design and Alfred University. Sormin’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recent exhibitions: Merantau, Galerie McClure, Montreal (CA); Saribu Raja/Boru Parame, 3rd Jakarta Ceramics Biennial, National Gallery of Indonesia; My voice changes when I speak your language, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York (US); Thing Tang Trash, KODE 1 Art Museums of Bergen (NO); Mine, Denver Art Museum (US); Howling Room, gl Holtegaard (DK), Drawn, Vallauris (FR) and Rift, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (UK). She has taught ceramics for 12 years – at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Vancouver) the Rhode Island School of Design, and Sheridan College, where she is currently Professor and Head of Ceramics.
Heidi Bjørgan lives and works in Bergen, Norway. She is educated from Bergen Academy of Art & Design and Konstfack University. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in exhibitions ECC 2014 Ceramic Art, Bornholm Art Museum (DK); Tendenser 2014 - Story Art, Galleri F 15 (NO); The Ceramic Object, Galleri Format Oslo (NO) and REVEALING THOUGHTS, Grand Palais, Paris (FR). Her works have been purchased by The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (NO) and Victoria & Albert Museum, London (UK) among others. In addition she has co-curated the exhibitions Beyond G(l)aze (NO/CN); Signert Inger Waage, and Thing Tang Trash all at KODE Art Museums of Bergen (NO); Tendenser 2012 – Time Out , F 15 (NO); That was then... This is now, Hordaland Art Centre (Bergen, NO)
Linda Sormin Are you land or water?, Remix 11, 2015.