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Artist Statement - Cecilia Jansson
My works are dealing with the value of peoples identity. I want to explore what preconceptions and
prejudices are hidden in our need to put people in groups.
I have made art with, for or about some of the hidden, forgotten or ignored groups in society. I want
to make people consider the fact that every group is made of individuals with unique
personalities.The need to put labels on people is worth investigating; what is the label good for? My
background as a ceramic artist is important for me even though I work with many different media
nowadays. My works are often very tactile and the materials I work with are carefully selected to fit
the subjects.
Current project: with male lifetime inmates at high security Kumla Prison; big scale iron sculpture,
Sweden 2015.
Recent projects: Workshop with autistic children Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai 2014.
Cooperation with Theater Martin Mutter; drawing live on stage The project promoted meetings
between hearing and deaf children 2013-14. Cooperation with male inmates at Kumla prison
Sweden; a 110m long decoration on iron plates.
Residences include Swatch Art Peace Shanghai 2014. Grants; Swedish Arts Grants Committee 2014.
Solo show "Identiteeth" Mu Fei Gallery Jingdezhen China. Group shows; Swatch Art Peace Hotel
"Faces And Traces" Shanghai 2014 Art Labor Shanghai 2015
Identiteeth.
The series called Identiteeth is made during a six months residence in Jingdezhen, China. Instead of
hiring craftsmen, as many artists do, to throw, paint and glaze the works, I used the people in the part
of the city called “The Sculpture Factory” in a different way. By getting molds from the local dentist, I
included people’s identity as a part of my design.
The other part of the exhibition is the sculptures, made by Chinese craftsmen but with my own
teeth/identity added to them.
Identiteeth deals with issues concerning the value of labor in relation to the identity of the worker. I
have dealt with the matter of creating, developing and keeping an identity in several art projects. The
most recent was the large wall decoration in Kumla Prison in Sweden. Working with the inmates
made me even more interested in how we create our identity.
Working in China always makes me aware how much ones identity is connected to the environment.
When in China, I become a representative for the very place I try to escape; the western world.
Unglazed porcelain. Thrown, sculpted and cast. The teeth are made from molds from a local dentist
in Jingdezhen, China