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Rochester Art Center opens Henny Linn Kjellberg: Critical Mass

Rochester Art Center presents Henny Linn Kjellberg: Critical Mass an exhibition on view April 26, 2013 – May, 2014.

Henny Linn Kjellberg
Known for her cutting-edge ceramic swork, Swedish artist Henny Linn Kjellberg has created an original, site-specific installation called Critical Mass that considers dual interpretations of this frequently used term. As described by Kjellberg: “Critical mass is most often used within nuclear science to describe the smallest amount of fissile material for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. It is also used as a socio-dynamic term to describe the existence of sufficient momentum in a social system, such that the momentum becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth. Critical Mass will reflect on the idea of the growth of human knowledge and the force of the group dynamic such as political movements and uprisings, and how actions and events sometimes can grow fast, or out of control, with either positive or negative outcomes.”

Critical Mass is made of more than 1,500 thin, paper-like white porcelain sheets that hang and seem to float from the RAC Atrium’s 50-foot ceiling in a dense cluster. On each sheet is black underglazed text from the 1651 political-philosophical book Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.

Henny Linn Kjellberg holds a BFA from Denmark’s Design School Bornholm, and an MFA from Konstfack – the University College of Arts and Craft in Stockholm, Sweden. She has also been a guest student at SHKS – the National University College of Arts and Craft in Norway. Since 2000 she has been active in various fields within the visual arts, such as installation, performance art and traditional commission work. She has shown her work at galleries and museums in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Thailand, Canada and the US and has been an artist in residence and guest artist several times at the International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. www.rochesterartcenter.org