Linda Sormin hand-built a new, small-size sculpture, rû, by glazing and firing together 3 kitschy ceramic rams that she found in Toronto’s Chinatown. Sormin crowned these with a cast of her own breast, gilded in gold leaf – a response to “Bol-Sein” the historic Sevres porcelain vessel said to have been cast from the breast of Marie Antoinette.
Linda Sormin
Linda Sormin
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lindasormin.com
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lsormin@gmail.com
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Clay streams above and veers past, willing me to compromise, to give ground. I roll and pinch the thing into place; I collect and lay offerings at its feet. This architecture melts and leans, hoards objects in its folds. Forms lurch, dare you to approach, space collapses with the brush of a hand.
Nothing is thrown away - this immigrant lives in fear of waste. Old yoghurt starts a new batch. Images glitch and flow. What is worth risking for things to get juicy, rare, ripe? What might be discovered on the verge of things going bad?
Linda Sormin explores fragility, upheaval, migration, survival and change through sculpture and site-responsive installations. She was a 2021 participant at European Ceramic Workcentre in the Netherlands, creating new work for three exhibitions: Ceramics in the Expanded Field: Sculpture, Performance and the Possibilities of Clay at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, USA (October 16, 2021 - April 2, 2023), No Boundaries at Messums, London, UK, a solo exhibition at Messums, Wiltshire (March 5 – May 1, 2022), and a two-person exhibition at Peach Corner Gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark (September 29 – November 5, 2022).
Sormin lives and works in New York City, and is an Associate Professor of Studio Art at New York University. She has taught ceramics at Emily Carr University, Rhode Island School of Design, Sheridan College and Alfred University. Born in Bangkok, Thailand, Sormin moved to Canada with her family at the age of five.