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Irja Bodén
My practice invokes memory. My recent work, The Stacks, echoes the impressive collection of awards my father won as a competitive marksman when I was a child in northern Sweden. Though I’ve lived in the US for many years, looking back comes naturally and, at times, comes unbidden. Arranging my hollow ceramic forms into trophy-stacks is to suggest something familiar yet abstract, and I practice my ceramics upon functional and familiar forms that have been altered into abstract sculptures.
Each work within The Stacks is made in series of three to eighteen pieces, is between five and twenty-four inches tall, with variances in color, texture and form. I lightly secure the stacking components, though I sometimes leave pieces unattached to articulate that balance implies precariousness. The separate groupings tell a unique narrative of relationship, balance, and scale.
Irja Bodén (b. Kiruna, Sweden) received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2006 from SUNY Potsdam, magna cum laude, in painting, and a Bachelor of Arts 1984 in Social Science from Lund University, Sweden. Recipient of several grants, awards, and residencies, her work has been exhibited in and around New York and abroad. Bodén was awarded a 2021 Artist Resource Trust Fund from Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Most recent exhibits include the 2021 solo exhibit Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Ely Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT; The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2020: "Here Together!" NYC, NY; Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY; Konstmuseet i Norr, Sweden. Bodén currently lives and works in Ghent, New York.