(from the series SERVANTS), 2025
body bags, plastic
73 x 38 x 41 cm
Transcription from the audio guide written by Alina Kleytman:
Oh, Emmy.
Thick, a little hard of hearing, all covered in laundry, soot, and lye.
From morning till night she rolls through palaces, halls, and dressing rooms,
creaking on her little wheels,
pulling behind her a cart with bleach, handmade soap, and a spare spine (just in case).
First, Emmy rolls into the laundry—
slowly, like a thunderstorm on wheels.
Behind her drags a bag.
Huge. Black. Swollen with fame and sweat.
And inside that bag—they are.
The underwear.
Legendary.
Historically soiled.
They’re not underwear—they’re a flag soaked in human ambition.
The size—epochal.
Emmy unfurls them like a scroll.
An entire hall is needed to spread them out.
She sets down the basin.
Inside—boiling water.
Salt.
Chlorine.
Tears of the opposition.
And a single magnolia petal—because after all, she is a lady.
Then—a rinse with a spin that feels more like an interrogation.
And finally—the removal.
The underwear is hung on a cornice shaped like an American eagle,
drying to fanfare,
while Thick Emmy rolls back into the shadows.
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.