Birke Gorm

“The common woman is as common as a thunderstorm”, says the woven writing of Birke Gorm’s hanging fabrics made of jute. Gorm works with archaic materials of metal, terracotta, jute or wood, incorporating a range of techniques, such as woodcarving, stitching, writing, and flexing. The artist’s practice explores womanhood and solidarity, expressed in powerful and assuring terms. Her sculptural works depict human-shaped figures made out of found and collected over time terracotta bricks and peebles, with pots and jugs in the place of heads and faces. On their stomachs are fabrics and cushions which carry keychains, nails, bolts, champagne corks, and other accidental objects. Pregnancy is depicted as not a weakening, bed-bounding female destiny, but a moving, fierce power. The common woman can be any woman, and any woman is an empowered force fueling collective solidarity.