(from the series SERVANTS), 2025
body bags, plastic, fabric
129 x 84 x 64 cm
Transcription from the audio guide written by Alina Kleytman:
Ah, sharp-nosed Clara…
A servant, a shadow, a breath in the keyhole.
A maid not by summons—by blood.
For three hundred thousand years she has been arranging the orange tuft of her goddess—
as if preparing the planet for dawn.
When Clara combs, everything falls silent:
volcanoes, markets, polls.
Even the mirror dares not reflect the Diva until Clara says: “Done.”
Clara is not service.
She is faith.
And every lock she lays—
is another brick in the empire of the hairstyle
that holds the balance of worlds.
If one day the mistress wakes and forgets who she is—
Clara will comb her memory.
With a center part,
and eternal devotion on the sides.
Description/commentary
With names as peculiar as their forms, the six SERVANTS—MR RUFFLE, FAT EMMY, CLARA SHARPNOSE, MARCO, ONE OF, and STEVE—are ghostly appendages of a theatrical regime. Composed of body bags and plastic, each sculpture resembles an oversized fingernail balanced delicately on wheels, fitted with tiny hands—ready to serve, polish, or intervene.
These spectral creatures glide across imagined palace floors with silent devotion, echoing a hushed “yes, madam” in every rotation. They are the invisible labor behind perfection, the animated extensions of power that quietly restore order, gloss, and control. Part absurdist fantasy, part biting allegory, SERVANTS offers a vision of elite domesticity where control masquerades as cleanliness and subservience becomes a tool of command. These are not props. They are instruments of a regime where even the nails know their cue—and roll out accordingly.
And should you ever hear a faint tapping on the tiles…
do not be alarmed.
They are simply back on duty.