ARTIST TALK: INGER SIF HEESCHEN

Artist talk

My work branches out into multiple references and is often rooted in archaic vase forms, which I reinterpret and reshape in clay. I am drawn to clay not only for its inherent materiality but also for its historical depth—its long-standing role in the creation of both functional objects and artifacts throughout human history.

Inger Sif Heeschen (1989, Denmark) works in the media of ceramics, drawing and print. Her practice is colored by artistic research into utility objects, popular culture, and archaic image traditions, her method is close to the anthropological. Ubiquitous in her works is the interest in the cultural, national, and personal tales that encapsulate everyday life. How they shape and create a people, a common story, and a narrative about the progressions of society. Collective self-perceptions are continuously up for negotiation. Each in their way, they all point towards the narratives we create on the foundation of the objects we surround ourselves with and the ways we understand and map our realities and stories.

In her artist talk, Inger Sif Heeschen will focus on works from the past 3–5 years, during which her practice has increasingly centered around ceramic kitsch culture and traditional craftsmanship in clay. She will present several projects, with particular emphasis on her latest solo exhibition, Det Sidste Neg (The Last Sheaf), at Gallery Tom Christoffersen in Copenhagen. The talk will conclude with an introduction to her current research and sketches for my upcoming exhibition in Spring 2026—a project that began during my residency at the Danish Institute in Rome in December, is to be continued here at the Institute in Athens, and further developed during a residency in Mexico City this coming summer.

The picture is from Inger Sif Heeschen's solo exhibition 'Det Sidste Neg' ('The Last Sheaf') in 2024 at Galleri Tom Christoffersen in Copenhagen 2024. Photo: Jan Sondergaard.

You can read more about Inger Sif Heeschen's work on Galleri Tom Christoffersen's website.

Attend in person or online. Registration only needed for online participation. Follow this link.