Jørgen Frederik Scheel Haarstad: Selected works, 2015-2023
Released Wasteland, 2019
Like most great contemporary art, Jørgen Haarstad’s work does not really fit in any genre. He lends as much from the industrial worker and the rock musician as it does from fellow artists, and the result is complex yet an immediate and powerful, physical experience.
Trying to come up with a label for Haarstad’s work is quite enjoyable, as all attempts sound a bit awkward and does not come close trying to capture what he is about. Ceramic sound art? Conceptual ceramics? Performative or choreographed sculpture? They all say something about his body of works, but do not reveal their essence. In fact, Haarstad seems to cultivate a distinct aesthetic that moves clear of a stale intellectual understanding by engaging its spectator in a physical sense, acting as a source of contemplative delight. It makes for absolutely mesmerizing artworks, but all the more difficult trying to write something substantial about them without chipping away too much at what makes them unique.
After starting to work with the industrial ceramic supplier, NTP (Norwegian Technical Porcelain), Haarstad has been using porcelain insulators and industrial components from the factory in his artworks. The NTP products are renowned for their high quality, and any flaw occurring during the production process will render the ceramic component unfit for use. Haarstad is using these industrial components in his artistic practice, and most recently to make incredible soundscapes as he tempers with them, manipulate them, swing them like pendulums from the ceiling, drag them across the floor, and crush them in a loosely choreographed chaos.
Titled Released Wasteland, Haarstad performed the ceramic sound work on a stage in front of an audience at Fossekleiva Kultursenter, in 2018. In the middle of the spectacle stands the artist, wearing Doc Martens boots, black jeans and a black tank top, safety goggles and taped fingers. The ceramic components on stage are also completely black. The atmosphere is dark and hardened, compared his earlier work, and certainly more melancholic. The performance is a feat of strength, and has a striking sensibility. Normally one thinks of porcelain as something domestic, precious and breakable, but surrounded by the large and heavy pieces of white porcelain, the strong-built artist looks strangely fragile, as the occasional shard is flying past him because of his destructive/creating actions, in what one might describe as a concerto.
Excerpt from a text by Espen Johansen about Jørgen Haarstad’s work.
Released Wasteland, 2019, Porcelain, Ceramic sound work, installation and performance, 200 sq. m. Fossekleiva Kultursenter, Norway
I went into another room, 2016
I went into another room, 2016, Porcelain, Ceramic sound work, installation and performance, 110 sq. m. National Museum Oslo, Norway.
Oxytocin drive A, 2021
Oxytocin drive A, 2021, Stone ware. Hight 95 cm, lenght 125 cm, wide 75 cm. Exhibited at Senter for keramisk kunst in Ringebu, Norway, 2021
Oxytocin drive A2, 2023
Oxytocin drive A2, 2023, Stoneware, Hight 95 cm, lenght 125 cm, wide 75 cm.
Lethal assumption, 2015
Lethal assumption, 2015, Porcelain and white concrete. Height 45 cm, wide 90 cm x length 900 cm. Exhibited at several exhibitions, including at the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2015 (Competition), South Korea
