Excerpt from “Love Notes to Buddhas”, essay by Linda Sormin in Contemporary Clay and Museum Culture, ed. Christie Brown, Julian Stair, Clare Twomey, 2016

“You are my lost and found buddhas, my ready-mades from the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties.  I’ve been commissioned to make new work for the Thing Tang Trash[¹] exhibition at Permanenten.[²] Walking through the Museum, looking for a place to build, I see you for the first time: eight life-size marble buddha and guardian figures lined up stiffly against a yellow wall.  You are introduced to me as the “China Collection”, along with neolithic pots, blue and white vessels, a Han horse and camel, bronze and earthenware objects from ancient Chinese burial sites.

Some of you have lost your heads.  Most people walk by quickly.  A few tourists stop for photos, posing behind you. Their laughing, bobbing faces stand in for yours. I ask for time alone with you. I sit on the green marble floor, drawing you from different angles. You have pencil marks on your backs, and you’re shorter than I thought you’d be.

You are as out of place here as I am. Do you miss Yuanming Yuan, the summer palace?  What do you remember of your first Norwegian snow? Did you look up, eyes wide… stick out your tongues to taste the new country?

I will lace you with porcelain, embroider you with stories and raw clay. I will coax you slowly from your plinths. I will build you a boat so you might travel to new lands, roam the oceans at will, or make your way home.”