Exhibition Norse | cirkoladesign

The works illustrate and mediate through form, picture and the spoken word some of the great tales from the mythology of the North.The exhibition encompasses thirty-five clay vessels, dishes, bowls and lidded pots created in a co-operative endeavor between potter Helle Theilgaard and visual artist Anne Cirkola. Added to these are about ten multicolored monotype prints made by Anne, and five performances by storyteller Jan Cirkola.
The exhibition requires 30-40 m² floor space and 50 m² wall area.

There is widespread curiosity and interest in the Norse, but the stories are often very complex and difficult for the individual to remember. As artists we have been greatly inspired by the powerful pictures and allegories that characterize these stories and our aim is to turn these aspects of the cultural inheritance into more tangible experiences for others.
We have therefore chosen to work with a sculptural medium that offers the opportunity to bind space and observer in a defined transaction. The comic-like decoration with pictures from Norse mythology extends that mode over several different clay vessels that together create the great story of war, power, revenge, love, seduction and transformation. The ceramic forms are based on clay vessels from the Stone and Iron Ages, found in Denmark,
with these archetypal forms functioning as material descendants of the stories’ reverberation.

Exhibition Køge

Expression and surface treatment of the high-fired chamotte clay bespeaks the artist’s access to a direct, unadulterated and down to earth graphic language, while Jan Cirkola’s vivid retelling employs modern speech to create space and oversight for mythology’s convoluted plot. Listeners are seduced into creating pictures of the telling in their own heads, and thereby traverse the long historical distance behind them.

Visual artist Anne Cirkola has worked with monotype for many years, here building on this background to create the large multicolored prints that show beings and events that had great significance in the Vikings’ imaginative world. With these the artist contrives to add powerful, dangerous and authentic pictures to the mythological visual world. The exhibition will be hosted at