20 years ago, in 2006 Jørgen Haugen Sørensen wrote this text for the exhibition: “We Eat, They Devour” at Galleri Nørby in Copenhagen

”We Eat, They Devour” – is the title of this exhibition. All the works share this as an underlying motif, as they were made at the same time as I was working on a large dog fight, “That’s Why They Call Them Dogs,” which can now be seen at the National Gallery of Denmark.

I had initially imagined that the ceramic works would be utilitarian objects to be given away, but the more I worked with them, the more aware I became of what dishes and bowls are actually used for, what kind of struggle is a prerequisite before something edible ends up on the table in front of us, as well as a kind of snapshot of time, meant to become part of our everyday lives.
Based on these thoughts, I began working with the platters. But since I am, after all, a sculptor, one can probably say that as utilitarian objects they hardly distinguish themselves, my knowledge of the various techniques is too limited for that. It is rather the motif and the modeling that have interested me.

When I was 15, I became an apprentice potter and plasterer at Ibsens Enke, a factory located at Frederikssundsvej 78. I remember the number so clearly because every day for two and a half years I cycled there from the farthest edge of Amager, a distance at which one would normally have changed horses twice. When one finally arrived, it gave you the feeling that you had in fact done enough for the day.

I was supposed to be there for five years, but before that both the management and I could see that the most sensible solution was for our paths to part. It turned out that I had more sick days than all the workers combined, and to prevent the condition from becoming chronic, we agreed on that solution. But in one way or another, my time at the factory affected me—they produced the kitschiest things imaginable. Calla vases, Indian ashtrays; nothing was made without some sort of motif, mostly in orange and green colours.
Later I attended the School of Arts and Crafts under the ceramist Christian Poulsen, but the style I brought with me was hardly fashionable, at least not there, where at the time people were working with pure form. Christian Poulsen protected me, so I stayed there for three months, before it dawned on me that I should try sculpture instead. That is where my career as a ceramicist ended.

I am glad that I received this invitation to exhibit here in the Nørby gallery; in that way I can feel a little bit like a ceramicist again, and I hope there are not too many calla vases and leaping hares in my works.

Jørgen Haugen Sørensen

Thank you Bettina Køppe @koppe_contemporary