CLAYPLAY | Astrid Specht Seeberg

CLAY PLAY

Astrid Specht Seeberg’s CLAYPLAY is a self-created ritual, a participatory performance and sculptural workshop that explores the interplay between sensory experience, materiality, and subconscious expression.

ClayPlay is developed by Astrid Specht Seeberg through a series of performances in diverse environments. A group of participants lined in rows of between 9 to ∞ persons, gradually constructs clay masks in a blind improvisation, grappling with the tangible weight, resistance, and unpredictability of the material in their hands. The uninterrupted gaze of witnesses present in the space becomes an integral component of the work, intensifying the tension between the mask builders intimate struggle and the alienating context of the exhibition setting. Masked bodies find flow-state in their blindness, surrendering to a tactile investigation of their transformed appearance and identity. Viewers observe how the masks emerge as living surfaces, shaped into impressions of an inner world through a tender dialogue with surrounding bodies and space. The performance is also livestreamed on a screen, influencing crowd behavior and revealing how people position themselves between watching the screen.

Venues & Highlights:

Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen, with 50 participants: featured in Unge Kunstnerstemmer by Art Matter — “to build clay masks live while being filmed and streamed by two screens... forgetting oneself in the material” https://artmatter.dk/journal/unge-kunstnerstemmer-astrid-specht-seeberg/

Kunsthal Gent (part of For Some Time I’ve Been Standing), June 28, 2025: involved seven participants in an intimate live ritual https://kunsthal.gent/en/agenda/astrid-specht-seeberg-clayplay

https://curatorialstudies.be/projects/astrid-specht-see-berg-clayplay

Sophienholm Kusnthal: Under the Cobra Ceiling, 22 March 2026.

Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Autumnexhibition 2024, Copenhagen.

Some images of @astridspechtseeberg’s ClayPlay performance organized by Curatorial Studies last week. Under the guidance of the artist, a group of participants from the audience gradually builded clay masks in a blind improvisation, struggling with the tangible weight of the material. The uninterrupted gaze of the witnesses in the space was an integral part of the performance. Their presence heightens the tension between Seeberg’s intimate struggle and the alienating setting of the exhibition space. Masked bodies surrendered to a shared blindness in a tactile investigation of their new appearance. The audience witnessed how the masks were shaped as living surfaces into imprints of an inner world in a tender dialogue with their surroundings. Astrid Specht Seeberg (1999, Copenhagen) works primarily as a sculptor. Through a physically engaged practice, her work explores themes related to the complexities of identity and intimacy, environmental and social dynamics. She uses the knowledge of marine biology to investigate the lives of corals and other beings of the sea and what we can learn from them. Her work is rooted in storytelling and inviting the uncertainty and joy that comes when we can no longer see, but only feel. With a raw and improvisational approach, Seeberg challenges ceramic techniques and works with a very specific material vulnerability.ClayPlay is part of the exhibition ‘For some time I’ve been standing’, curated by @curatorial_studies_kask 2024 – 2025

Images by @lukas_neven