Pass safely through redolent woods, 2020

Linda Sormin’s ceramic and mixed-media sculptures embody fragility, upheaval, and survival, offering a raw reflection of the human experience. Born in Bangkok and tracing her family’s ancestry to Thailand, China, and Indonesia, Sormin’s practice is a meditation on the diasporic condition. In conversations about her work, the word “architecture” is used. Like a temple or a home, Sormin’s works are a part of the artistic infrastructure that guides the way we move through and inhabit the world. 

Sormin’s sculptures are characterized by a distinct visual and material language. She uses raw clay, fired ceramics, paper, and found objects to generate amalgamative portraits of her family’s cultural practice and her personal history as an immigrant. “Nothing is thrown away. The immigrant lives in fear of waste,” she says. “What might be discovered on the verge of things going bad?”  

Sormin describes her creative practice as an ongoing collaboration with clay – rolling, pinching, and willing it into place. She uses discarded and recycled items that she collects from friends, family, and even the public in a process comparable to religious rituals—receiving and holding materials as though they were offerings or sacrifices. In this way, Sormin’s sculptures become shrines to interconnectedness. 

Pass safely through redolent woods is displayed in the Cottage Gallery, located near Parking Lot 2. The Cottage Gallery will be open Thursday to Sunday from 11am–3pm (or by appointment). If you would like to make an appointment, please email lap_programs@montalvoarts.org.