Irene Nordli
Irene Nordli: porcelain, bodies and transformation
Irene Nordli is a Norwegian artist born in Lørenskog in 1967, working with ceramics. The porcelain figurine and its transformation are central to her practice. Store norske leksikon describes increasing abstraction from the mid-2010s.
Education and artistic starting points
Nordli's own CV lists ceramic studies in Bergen from 1991 to 1996 and an exchange at Ohio State University in 1993. She has a studio in Heestrand, Sweden, and an address in Oslo. Her workplaces thus connect Norway and Sweden.
She models, builds and casts forms, breaks them apart and reassembles them in new ways. Her investigation encompasses figurines and vessels. In Homo Faber’s artist interview, Nordli describes working with clay's different states, from liquid and soft to dry and hard.
Norwegian Crafts’ studio visit relates her practice to porcelain history, fragments of the human body and animal-human hybrids. The traditional decorative figurine remains a starting point, while recognisable bodies and figures can dissolve into more abstract forms.
More than one kind of ceramic
Format's presentation shows the material range: Venus in a mold, from 2021, uses porcelain and glaze; Vessel nr. 22, from 2020, is listed as stoneware with glaze. See Format’s presentation. Each work's material must therefore be established individually, despite Nordli's strong association with porcelain.
Nasjonalmuseet's Prins nr. 2, from 2005, combines carved wood with spray-lacquered, modelled ceramics. The sculpture is 73 cm high. Lacquer may thus also form part of a surface treatment and needs to be distinguished from glaze in an accurate material description.
Installations and art in public spaces
Nordli received Kunsthåndverkprisen for Rotfylling, from 2017. She placed ceramic objects and driftwood within an existing interior at Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum. Oslo National Academy of the Arts documents both the work and the award.
Another approach appears in Månelyst 2, from 2010, at Halden Prison. KORO records the large rabbit-like sculpture as cast concrete covered with glass mosaic, ceramics and mirrors. Her public works can therefore involve many more materials than her smaller ceramic sculptures.
What the documentation should establish
Nordli's use of fragments and assembled figures makes accurate identification important. A cast element is not automatically an industrially mass-produced figurine, and an altered decorative figure is not necessarily a Nordli artwork. Titles, measurements, purchase records and previous exhibition details provide better evidence than visual resemblance.
For condition descriptions, photograph joins, protruding parts and the underside. Distinguish documented original breaks or assemblies from later damage and repairs. Differences between glaze, lacquer and attached materials should be recorded. Irregular surfaces or fragmented imagery may belong to the expression, but alone cannot establish the object's original condition.
