Yàn (2016-2025) by Ou Jiun-You, Every Square is a Fiction of Order by Berenice Hernández & Mari Ulland and Heaps by Sebastian Rusten

Artist list

Berenice Hernández, Ou Jiun-You, Sebastian Rusten, Mari Ulland

Yàn (2016-2025)
Ou Jiun-You

The selected works in this exhibition are part of Yàn, an ongoing project by Ou Jiun-You that began in 2016. The name derives from the Mandarin transliteration of ‘inkstone’, the material used in her work. Traditionally, inkstones hold water and serve as surfaces for grinding ink sticks, their form shaped by function—defined by shallow grooves and dense weight. In the Sinosphere, inkstones are often made from Luo-Wen stone, a term describing stones with similar properties across various Chinese regions rather than a strict mineralogical classification. In the early stages of Yàn, Ou erased and preserved existing lines, then cut, faceted, carved, and reassembled the material in a seemingly playful manner. As the series progressed, the calligraphy-like strokes gradually turned into a three-dimensional shadow with their hidden but revealed expressions. This process not only emphasizes the physicality and materiality of the inkstone but also explores the most possibilities among all the units with a bricolage-based working method. Eventually, the inkstone has been transformed from a carrier of water and ink into a piece of jewelry, hushedly carrying the story of the material itself and the maker.

Ou Jiun-You was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and is currently living and working between Vienna (AT) and Taipei (TW). After receiving a BA in Political Science–International Relations from National Taiwan University (TW), Ou embarked on a largely self-taught journey into raw material-based practices in 2008. Later, her growing interest in stone led her to move to Germany to study at Hochschule Trier, Campus Idar-Oberstein (DE) from 2015 to 2018, also accompanied by an Erasmus exchange at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EE) from 2016 to 2017. After her graduation, she later relocated to Karlsruhe (DE) before establishing her current base in Vienna (AT), where she continues to refine her interdisciplinary explorations and stone-based practices. Although, in recent years, Ou has been working interdisciplinarily with a focus on site-specific projects, her main interests have never departed from stone. The ongoing Yàn series represents a facet of her purely material-based practice, exploring the intrinsic qualities of inkstone for almost ten years. Since 2019, the Yàn series has received significant recognition, such as Grassipreis der Carl und Anneliese Goerdeler-Stiftung (2023, DE), Justus Brinckmann Förderpreis (2022, DE), and Staatspreis für das Kunsthandwerk Rheinland-Pfalz (2022, DE), Schmuck (2024, 2019), among others. Works from the series are also held in public collections, including the Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst (DE), the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (DE), and more.



Every Square is a Fiction of Order
Berenice Hernández and Mari Ulland

The works of Berenice Hernández and Mari Ulland are rooted in architecture and the pursuit of new possibilities within their main materials. In this exhibition, Hernández and her ceramic pieces engage with Ulland’s textile work and use of the grid as a point of departure. 

Grids impose structure. They define and limit space. They are a promise of order. But like all systems, they remain inherently unstable. In the works of both artists, a recurring image emerges: a square within a frame, a gesture of containment and balance. A balance that proves to be false as the textile layers of Ulland bend and unfold as if they are resisting their own geometry. They are not fixed systems but shifting forms, folding and unfolding, seemingly defying their own forced logic. 

And while the ceramic structures of Hernández seem stable and permanent, as ceramic pieces often do, they are full of traces of the opposite—cracks, glaze drips, gestures caught in motion. Their surfaces shift between being paintings and sculptures; they show both flatness and depth, containment and disruption. 

As the exhibition title implies, our search for stability using grid systems, or any system, is futile. Cracks form, voids open, new forms slip through, and movements always unfold. 



Heaps
Sebastian Rusten

Sebastian Rusten's artistic practice is centered around an exploration of the self, or the absence of a self, within the context of a more-than-human world. He utilizes materials he gathers from forests and fields, both intuitively and rooted in traditional craftsmanship techniques. He believes that natural materials hold the potential to form new relationships and an expanded understanding of the processes that shape the human being and the various roles the self can occupy.

The installation displayed at Format is part of a series of floorworks titled Heaps. The term is derived from the Buddhist concept of the five skandhas, which describe the five elements that constitute our idea of a self. These elements are matter or body, feelings, perception, mental structures, and consciousness. Sebastian uses "Heaps," one of the English translations of skandhas, as his title. In Norwegian, they may be referred to as piles, collections, or groupings. The five piles serve as the starting point for a meditation where the self is deconstructed in search of an essential self that is said not to exist.

In Heaps 5, one of Sebastian's primary materials, the Christmas tree, is deconstructed and reassembled. Here, pine needles are crushed and laid out like a carpet on the floor, with timber placed on top. The wood is painted with a liquid extracted from pine needles, powdered pine needles, pulverized wood, and powdered charcoal.

Sebastian Rusten (b. 1986, Oslo) lives and works in Trondheim. He graduated with a Master's degree in medium -and material- based art from the Oslo Academy of Art in the spring of 2023, with a focus on textiles. He has also studied the craft technique of tægerbinding in a course with Signe Irene Berg and spent time in Juneau, Alaska, learning basket weaving using spruce roots and ravenstail weaving. Rusten has participated with works in Høstutstillingen 2023, Hovedøya Kunstsal (Oslo), and has previously exhibited at venues such as Leveld Kunstnartun (Ål in Hallingdal) and Oplandia Senter for Samtidskunst (Lillehammer).
The exhibition is supported by the Arts Council Norway.