Delving into the Unsettling Sealant-Based Art: Where Things Appear Animated
If you're planning restroom upgrades, you may want to avoid employing this German artist to handle it.
Truly, she's highly skilled with a silicone gun, producing intriguing artworks with a surprising art material. Yet the more examine her creations, the clearer you realise that something is a little off.
Those hefty lengths made of silicone she produces reach past display surfaces where they rest, sagging over the sides to the ground. The gnarled foam pipes swell before bursting open. Certain pieces escape the display cases completely, turning into a magnet for grime and particles. One could imagine the reviews might not get positive.
At times I get this sense that items are alive inside an area,” states the sculptor. “That’s why I turned to this foam material because it has a distinctly physical sensation and look.”
Indeed there is an element somewhat grotesque in the artist's creations, from the phallic bulge that protrudes, like a medical condition, off its base at the exhibition's heart, to the intestinal coils made of silicone which split open as if in crisis. On one wall, Herfeldt has framed images of the works seen from various perspectives: they look like squirming organisms seen in scientific samples, or colonies on a petri-dish.
What captivates me is how certain elements within us happening that also have their own life,” Herfeldt explains. Elements that are invisible or manage.”
Regarding things she can’t control, the poster promoting the event includes a photograph of the leaky ceiling in her own studio in Kreuzberg, Berlin. Constructed built in the early 1970s and according to her, faced immediate dislike among the community as numerous older edifices got demolished to allow its construction. It was already in a state of disrepair upon her – originally from Munich but grew up near Hamburg before arriving in Berlin during her teens – took up residence.
The rundown building caused issues for her work – placing artworks was difficult her art works without fearing risk of ruin – yet it also proved compelling. Without any blueprints accessible, no one knew the way to fix the malfunctions which occurred. Once an overhead section within her workspace got thoroughly soaked it fell apart fully, the single remedy involved installing the panel with a new one – and so the cycle continued.
In a different area, she describes the water intrusion was severe that several shower basins were installed in the suspended ceiling to divert leaks to another outlet.
It dawned on me that the structure was like a body, an entirely malfunctioning system,” the artist comments.
The situation reminded her of the sci-fi movie, the initial work 1974 film concerning a conscious ship which becomes autonomous. As the exhibition's title suggests given the naming – a trio of references – more movies have inspired shaping the artist's presentation. These titles refer to the leading women in the slasher film, Halloween plus the sci-fi hit as listed. She mentions an academic paper written by Carol J Clover, which identifies the last women standing a distinctive cinematic theme – women left alone to triumph.
These figures are somewhat masculine, rather quiet and they endure thanks to resourcefulness,” she elaborates regarding this trope. No drug use occurs or engage intimately. Regardless the audience's identity, everyone can relate to this character.”
The artist identifies a similarity between these characters to her artworks – objects which only holding in place amidst stress they face. Is the exhibition more about social breakdown beyond merely water damage? As with many structures, substances like silicone meant to insulate and guard against harm in fact are decaying around us.
“Absolutely,” responds the artist.
Prior to discovering her medium using foam materials, Herfeldt used other unusual materials. Recent shows have involved forms resembling tongues crafted from fabric similar to found in on a sleeping bag or inside a jacket. Once more, there's the feeling these strange items could come alive – some are concertinaed resembling moving larvae, pieces hang loosely from walls blocking passages attracting dirt from footprints (She prompts people to handle leaving marks on pieces). As with earlier creations, these nylon creations are also housed in – and breaking out of – inexpensive-seeming display enclosures. They’re ugly looking things, and really that’s the point.
“These works possess a particular style which makes one very attracted to, yet simultaneously they’re very disgusting,” she says amusedly. “The art aims for absent, but it’s actually highly noticeable.”
Herfeldt's goal isn't work to make you feel comfortable or aesthetically soothed. Instead, her intention is to evoke discomfort, odd, perhaps entertained. But if you start to feel something wet dripping on your head as well, remember you haven’t been warned.