Sara Borgegard

In the harbor of Gustavsberg, a town to the east of Stockholm where Sara Borgegard keeps her Atelier, a factory… in fact one of the most important porcelain factories in the Swedish art industry is being torn down to make way for fancy apartments. The loss of such an important industrial center will be devastating to the locals, many who have spent their whole working lives in the production line.
Borgegard reflects on this loss in Brick, Scale + Concrete. Impressions of industrial elements- mostly used to cast or store materials within the surroundings of the old factory inspire the forms created in her latest exhibition.
Sara Borgegard has used materials with strong connections to Swedish history, wood and Iron in particular, throughout her work.
In past pieces the wood she used came from transport pallets, in her latest group Concrete (2016), she constructs from a veneer of Adler, a fine wood she purposefully leaves rough and bare. In contrast to the colorful surfaces and simple, symmetric closed forms of the earlier Brick (2014) pendants, the wooden forms of Concrete are empty and light, yet more complex and irregular in form.
Borgegard doesn’t over-develop a form. With simplicity she seeks to bring the energy of a sketch into her work, often burnt to reveal black surfaces where lacquer has chipped away. She pays tribute to the human acts of creating, using and living with crafted objects in her wearable sculptures, bound to the wearer with threads and ropes such as carpet warp, also derived from the (traditionally female) crafts tradition of rug weaving that has been important in her own lineage.