Feeding a Leaky Skin

Site-responsive Installation

An exhibition realised in the frame of Raja TASE’24 in Tallinn, 30.05.-14.06.2024.

Feeding a Leaky Skin is composed of two series of work, the Bleeding Dry series and the Separator series, and a sculpture titled Blood Bag. Together they form an organism in which fluids ooze, leak and circulate by gravity, with daily care and maintenance carried out by hand without the aid of motors or pumps.

→ Bleeding Dry series

used motor oil, coolant, recycled PET bottles, PVC tubes, acrylic glass, PE foil, wire rope, metal grids of the gallery space, galvanized steel sheet

approx. 330x240x110 cm each

„The dripping sculptures evoke tenderness while acting as memento mori, remindung as of the fallibility of bodies, their decay and desintegration - opposing themselves to the current craze for longevity and efficiency.“ - Laura Cemin

The Bleeding Dry series consists of Bleeding Dry 1 and 2 forming an organism in which fluids ooze, leak and circulate by gravity, with daily care, maintenance and feeding carried out by hand without the aid of motors or pumps. Each cycle begins with the ultra-slow passage of used motor oil and coolant through two artificial membranes. What is usually used to keep a system running, finds its comfort in oozing, dripping and leaking through an artificial transparent membrane. While putting the viewer in a total loss scenario, a closer look simultaneously reveals a inner life and functioning allowing for associations to unknown anatomies, eczemas, blood cells and other microorganisms. In an ultra-slow pace, the fluids continuously generate familiar yet strange biomorphic forms and new organs that seem to last although gravity dooms them to vanish over time.

→ Separator series

→ Blood Bag 

→ Separator series

used motor oil, coolant, recycled plastic canisters, water hoses, shut-off valves, used truck tension belts, car safety belts, polyester thread, metal grids of the gallery space, galvanized steel sheet

approx. 180x160x40 cm each

The SEPARATOR series complements the BLEEDING DRY series. It consists of SEPARATOR 1, 2 and 3 each receiving and carrying the mixture of used engine oil and cooling water once it passed through the BLEEDING DRY membranes. The series separates the fluids in a three-step separation process by means of gravity. After drainage they are reintroduced into BLEEDING DRY to keep the weak system alive.

Both series are assembled from dysfunctional car workshop leavings combined with sanitary and medical equipment traversed by oil, a central contributor to the current global crisis. These materials are used to build a new body introducing a deceleration into the constant acceleration pushing for individual efficiency and exhaustion. To maintain its weak life is an embodied practice and fantasy of human and non-human coexistence beyond extractability.

→ Blood Bag 

used motor oil, coolant, recycled PET bottles, PVC tubes, acrylic glass, PE foil, wire rope, metal grids of the gallery space, galvanized steel sheet

dimensions variable

The Blood Bag collects the separation residues. It is a suspended sculpture that offers a moment of rest for these residues.

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