METHODS an exhibition of artwork by Jolinda Linden

METHODS is a survey of artist Jolinda Linden’s processes meticulously developed throughout her career as a porcelain-based artist. Best described as an optical playground for viewers, the show features an artist-curated selection of work representing seven of Linden’s practiced METHODS. Each piece in the exhibit is the result of a dedicated and determined exploration into the known extremes that clay can tolerate and the personalized scientific push for discovery that created new extremes and established the unique formulae and complicated procedures that the artist uses. This body of work gives us an inside glimpse into a professional artist’s ‘METHODS.’

 

From the beginning of her career, Linden has operated on the edict that “sever constraint on form can yield great beauty and a deeper relationship with raw materials and their ultimate capabilities.” Accordingly, Linden restricts herself to a specific porcelain, a few tools, clear glazes and a largely mono or duo chromatic palate. Through this austere exploration, fashioned after her of love of scientific empiricism, Linden creates room for artistic freedom in a space she has always considered both a laboratory and a studio. It is science that recognizes the infinite array of variables, skill allows her to translate those variables into the specific METHODS, and creative talent that drives finished composition.

 

Linden’s recent objective works reflect a loosening of her self-imposed restrictions and a desire to move beyond the textures, contrasts and dynamic shapes that are her signature hallmarks. Her foray into Swarovski crystals, elemental gold and image-based results was an exploration the artist really leaned into during the idle months of the covid pandemic. It was the start of the pop culture inspired Iconographic Series and meant a new emphasis on objective imagery and a greater need for minute detail and exacting process. Using the BONES METHOD Linden’s additions to content and design highlight the artist’s robust talent and continuous need to push.

 

If her approach to process is described as scientific and her approach to form artistic, it is a combination of emotion and curiosity that describes the motivation behind Linden’s choice of contemporary imagery. Much of the work in METHODS has been personalized to some extent by the artist. She has added personal meaning to curious exploration and methodical research, producing objective work that sometimes one must be “in the know” to fully understand. For instance, Barbie, created with the meticulous BONES METHOD, features a crystal and gold decked image true to the original Barbie, the Bild Doll. The depiction is a nod to the current pop fads and was created in recognition of the artist’s deep bond with her daughter – they share a collection of rare Barbies.

 

The subtlety of Jolinda Linden’s METHODS is there for viewers to explore on a number of levels. Those who are familiar with her work will see homage to METHODS she has mastered through contemporary presentations and concepts. Those encountering Jolinda’s work for the first time will not miss the continuity and foundation provided by her adherence to a well-stocked tool belt of METHODS, and a dedication and love of complicated meaning and science-based investigation.