Delving into the Unsettling Sealant-Based Art: Where Things Seem Alive

If you're planning washroom remodeling, it might be wise to avoid employing this German artist to handle it.

Certainly, she's a whiz using sealant applicators, creating fascinating artworks from this unlikely art material. However as you observe these pieces, the more it becomes apparent a certain aspect seems somewhat strange.

The thick lengths made of silicone she crafts extend over display surfaces where they rest, hanging over the sides to the ground. The knotty silicone strands bulge until they split. A few artworks break free from their acrylic glass box homes fully, turning into an attractor of debris and fibers. It's safe to say the feedback are unlikely to earn favorable.

“I sometimes have an impression that items seem animated within a space,” says the German artist. This is why I started using this substance as it offers this very bodily sensation and look.”

In fact there’s something rather body horror regarding the artist's creations, starting with the phallic bulge that protrudes, similar to a rupture, off its base in the centre of the gallery, or the gut-like spirals made of silicone that rupture resembling bodily failures. Along a surface, the artist presents images of the works captured in multiple views: they look like wormy parasites seen in scientific samples, or growths on culture plates.

I am fascinated by is the idea in our bodies occurring which possess a life of their own,” Herfeldt explains. Elements which remain unseen or command.”

Regarding elements beyond her influence, the promotional image for the show displays an image showing a dripping roof in her own studio in Kreuzberg, Berlin. Constructed made in the seventies and according to her, was quickly despised by local people since many old buildings were removed for its development. It was already in a state of disrepair when Herfeldt – originally from Munich yet raised near Hamburg then relocating to Berlin during her teens – began using the space.

This deteriorating space proved challenging for the artist – it was risky to display her art works anxiously risk of ruin – however, it was intriguing. With no building plans available, it was unclear how to repair the problems that developed. Once an overhead section in Herfeldt’s studio got thoroughly soaked it collapsed entirely, the only solution involved installing the panel with a new one – thus repeating the process.

In a different area, Herfeldt says dripping was extreme that a series of shower basins got placed above the false roof to divert the water to a different sink.

I understood that this place was like a body, an entirely malfunctioning system,” she says.

The situation brought to mind a classic film, the initial work 1974 film concerning a conscious ship that develops independence. Additionally, observers may note from the show’s title – Alice, Laurie & Ripley – that’s not the only film shaping the artist's presentation. These titles point to the female protagonists from a horror classic, Halloween and the extraterrestrial saga as listed. She mentions an academic paper written by Carol J Clover, that describes these surviving characters as a unique film trope – female characters isolated to triumph.

They often display toughness, on the silent side and they endure thanks to resourcefulness,” the artist explains about such characters. “They don’t take drugs or engage intimately. Regardless the viewer’s gender, all empathize with the survivor.”

She draws a similarity from these protagonists to her artworks – elements that barely holding in place amidst stress affecting them. Is the exhibition really concerning societal collapse than just leaky ceilings? Similar to various systems, such components intended to secure and shield against harm in fact are decaying around us.

“Completely,” says Herfeldt.

Before finding inspiration in the silicone gun, Herfeldt used other unusual materials. Recent shows included tongue-like shapes crafted from the kind of nylon fabric typical for on a sleeping bag or apparel lining. Again there is the impression these peculiar objects could come alive – some are concertinaed as insects in motion, pieces hang loosely on vertical planes or extend through entries attracting dirt from footprints (She prompts audiences to interact leaving marks on pieces). As with earlier creations, those fabric pieces are similarly displayed in – and breaking out of – cheap looking acrylic glass boxes. The pieces are deliberately unappealing, which is intentional.

“The sculptures exhibit a specific look that draws viewers compelled by, yet simultaneously being quite repulsive,” Herfeldt remarks grinning. “The art aims for not there, however, it is extremely obvious.”

Herfeldt is not making work to make you feel ease or aesthetically soothed. Rather, her intention is to evoke unease, awkward, or even humor. And if there's water droplets from above as well, remember this was foreshadowed.