Metaphors of Human Vulnerability

Gunhild Vatn is one of the most unusual phenomena in Norway’s ceramic sculpture. For many years now, disconcertingly subversive work has been leaving her studio, creating initial uncertainty as its provenance and its destination. The pseudo-technical appearance of these small-scale porcelain sculptures, which are always finished in a smooth, shining white suggests a wide range of different origins, without rashly revealing their most inner secrets. Vatns work is frequently accompanied by prose extracts serving to underline the level of ambiguity and bearing evidence of an intellectual concept going beyond the merely tactile. It is the dual attraction, this appeal to our sensual and intellectual imagination alike, which makes the work so fascinating.