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"In the deep, deep forrests"
-by Tom Joergensen,
editor of the Danish art magazine "Kunstavisen",
Bachelor in Art History from The University of Copenhagen
Although ceramic art in many ways does not have the same fine art connotations as does sculpture, it has one obvious quality: in the hand of a skilled artist ceramics combine the three-dimensional plasticity of sculpture with the sensual quality of painting. By using the glazes to full effect it is possible to create works of art which are simply irresistible, the colour being thick and creamy like honey or sparkling as emeralds and rubins. You have an urgent desire for touching the items and, seing that you are alone in the exhibition room, you do just that with a quick glance over your shoulder.
The work of Louise Birch Soerensen has precisely the sensouos qualities referred to above. Belonging to a new generation of ceramic artists she does not manufacture utensils, no disrespect meant here, but, rather, pieces which can only be named sculptures. Sculptures made of clay. A material with the inherent characteristic that you can mould it with your hands in every possible way you want. These hand made qualities give to the work of art an expressivity, an unpredictabilty and a very literal earth-boundedness that has been of great interest to many artists throughout time. Not least the famous Danish COBRA-artist Asger Jorn.
As for Louise Birch Soerensen she combines these expressive qualities with an interest for telling stories. Stories rooted in the collective unconscious, in the ancient fairy tales about mystical mountains, deep dark forrests, and mesmerizing metamorphoses. Stories in which everything can be turned around and in which it is possible to describe and comment upon issues from the economical and sociological present without being too overtly political.
Louise Birch Sørensen does all that and, in fact, a great deal more. Take for example the lovely sculpture "Why Hide?!", a forrest tableau containing two men kissing eash other passionately, and you will see that humour is an integral part of her work. Or take another piece "Once upon a time...", the title having a direct hint to fairy tales, where you see a little girl bycycling at full speed and with a happy smile on her face through the same forrest as in "Why Hide?!" A modern revision of the ancient story where small children are always seen as being mortally afraid of anything unknown. In contrast to this, the young heroine of Louise Birch Soerensen overcomes her fear and confronts it by plunging directly into the dark forrest of her nightmarish dreams.
It is this ability to combine a textual sense of the material with an all-encompassing imagination which makes Louise Birch Soerensen a very interesting and promising artist. She has, so it seems, the willingness to experiment and the ability to arouse our sense of wonder. It will be of great interest to follow her further development and I, for one, can´t wait to see what will be her next creative move.
Tom Joergensen.