Lubricating a Hardening Muscle

Installation 

artificial gut, water-oil-emulsion, used lifting slings, plastic-coated wire rope, collection container, sheet steel, steel, maintenance sign-off sheet

372×250×300 cm (dimensions variable)

Solo Exhibition My Weight Hangs in Your Arms, Draakon Gallery, Tallinn (EST), 14.05.-14.06.2026

Up Close - Goldrausch 2025, Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin (GER), 18.10.2025 - 25.02.2026

Lubricating a Hardening Muscle is an installation that transforms over time, examining the dependence of the human body on assisted care. It creates a mechanical-organic space. At its center floats a fatigued shell, stitched from repurposed artificial gut stained with petrochemical residues. Extended with lifting straps, it forms a prosthetic hybrid embodying both horror and fantasy. Suspended in a pulley system, the muscle is manually lowered into a water-oil-emulsion, and lubricated during Service Hours performance, softening the hardened tissue. The system is accompanied by the spare parts Stretched with the Flesh Side Facing Up stretched inside out on the gallery wall like animal skins. The work reveals the entanglement between the human body with petrochemical infrastructures, highlighting both the burden they impose on life and the precarious interventions required to sustain it.

→ Service Hours

→ Service Hours

Performance

40 min

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Special thanks to: Gisèle Gonon and all artists of Goldrausch 2025

Photography: Anu Vahtra, Victoria Tomaschko

With the support of: Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt