Irja Bodén

Lives and works in Ghent, NY, USA

Artist statement

My sculptures combine stacked and nested ceramic forms embossed with texture and layered with thick glazes. Each piece begins on the wheel, where I transform raw clay into narrative-based abstract sculptures. The interplay of shape, color, and texture reference the northern landscape along with other realms both physical and metaphysical – from subterranean depths to spiritual domains. The Arctic's vanishing ice sheets, melting glaciers, and thawing permafrost particularly inform my work, translating environmental urgency to tactile form. Each piece blends place, memory, and loss, drawing from both personal narratives and universal experiences while challenging traditional boundaries between craft and fine art. My technical approach embraces diverse glazing and firing methods—underglaze, multiple glazes, smoke firing, and raku—creating complex surfaces that echo geological processes. I began my ceramic series “To Dress a Ptarmigan” in 2018, responding to the systematic destruction and relocation of my hometown in northern Sweden—a city being dismantled due to mining faults beneath its foundations. Situated above the Arctic Circle, Kiruna takes its name from the Sami word for “Ptarmigan,” a resilient bird native to this northern region. The series title creates a deliberate parallel: just as dressing a bird for consumption requires careful dismembering and reassembling, so too does the piece-by-piece relocation of an entire city require a meticulous deconstruction of place...

Artwork