Jennifer Forsberg: Exit

Jennifer Forsberg: Exit, 2020

Material is central in human lives. In an endless chain of transformations, materials are turned into food, clothes, buildings and a multitude of other things.

This notion is the inspirational point of departure in Jennifer Forsberg’s work. Her work is investigating and playing with the intrinsic sensory information in clay and ceramics, in relation to forms.

Her work investigates and plays with the sensory qualities of raw and fired clay and how these qualities relate to and define form. Forsberg’s forms are sometimes familiar, sometimes just vaguely referred to.

”Exit” had its origins during a work period at the Oslo Academy of the Arts in early 2019. Two doors in natural size where made and fired in the excellent facilities at the ceramic department. Doors made of soft clay, then fired. The memory of softness remains. Marks from hands are still visible on the vitrified surface. Both handle and keyhole are missing.

”We are talking about a tipping point, an exact time for when there are irreversible shifts in the ecosystems caused by humans. A migration larger than any other in history is happening right now. Politically dangerous ideas are spreading again in the world. My work tries to address these issues in a poetic way through the voice of my chosen material and familiar forms as symbols for human emotions and desires.”

Exhibition at Format Gallery, Oslo, January 2020