Neil Forrest

Hard Transits

 

28. november - 20. desember 2013

​

Four large, ceramic ships hang from the ceiling of the RAM Gallery. They are made from clay, burned at extreme temperatures and glazed with striking colours.  All four ships are of Norwegian origin or related to Norwegian history: the Fram, the Gjøa, the Maud and the Nordstjernen (the Northern Star). Each ship has its own dramatic history, merged in this expression of Norwegian modernity, linked with Norwegian history, symbols and art references, as well as the remoteness of the material used here. 

 

Forrest’s interest in Kvernes stave church and its wooden model of a Swedish frigate paved the way to this project.    

 

Each ship has a painstakingly constructed interior which can be viewed up close, through the holes and slots in the hulls. What Forrest himself refers to as object-within-a-building is a study of content that traverses the ships as a symbol, and that plays on the architectonic space along with craftsmanship, form and material liberated from their ordinary use.     

Here are traces of architecture which in various ways confront Norwegian modernity: Hamsun’s childhood home, an arabesque, a bunker, a corridor and a black box from an aircraft. 

  

In this exhibition, Neil Forrest is the curator for a visiting group of colleagues who all work with ceramic art. Each has been invited to contribute to a commentative work called “Heap of Ships”: Ingrid Askeland, Oliwia Beszczynska, Sanna Sahlman Hajnos, Poul J. Jensen, Joost Kors, Mosa M. Sebdan and Hedvig Malmbekk Winge. 

Author and critic Kjetil Røed has written an exhibition catalogue essay.  

 

Neil Forrest is Professor of Ceramics at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Forrest has exhibited and lectured in Canada, the United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK and several places in Asia.  He has received several awards and has served on a number of exhibition juries in the course of his career. This is his first independent exhibition in Norway. Forrest studied at Sheridan College School of Crafts in Ontario, Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan and Alfred University College of Ceramics in New York. 

 

 

Welcome to the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, 28 November at 6 pm. Introduction by the Dean of Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Jørn Mortensen. 

This project has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts and from Oslo National Academy of the Arts.