Conceptual
Familiar objects, unexpected connections.
Mirrored Radio
An everyday radio meets its reversed counterpart.
Venus de Milo: After-sales
A pair of prosthetic arms offers an after-sales solution for the Venus de Milo.
Billy IKEA Golden Record
In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, each carrying a Golden Record: a message of images, sounds, music and greetings intended for any extraterrestrial civilisation that might one day find it. But how do you explain humanity to someone who shares none of our languages or assumptions?
As a child, I was fascinated by the project and the idea of a universal language that could explain who we are. In 2021, I made my own version of the Golden Record, using a form of communication familiar from everyday life: IKEA’s wordless assembly instructions.
The Billy bookcase seemed a natural choice. An ordinary object found in homes around the world, it connects people through a shared experience. Its instructions are designed to cross language barriers. Could they cross the boundaries between species, too?
The instructions are engraved into gilded brass. They offer no account of our history or achievements, but a practical task: assemble a bookcase. The sequence of loose parts becoming a structure can also suggest a story of collapse and rebuilding.
A message sent into space might outlive the people who made it. I cannot imagine a message that will remain relevant for all eternity. Perhaps it is enough to leave a trace that sparks curiosity. At the very least, whoever finds this record will know how to build a Billy — perhaps somewhere to keep the record itself.
Adam & Eve
Adam and Eve ate the apple and gained knowledge. Humanity would later use that knowledge to repair and replace parts of the body — in a sense, to play God. Based on a painted representation of Adam and Eve, these figures are fitted with prostheses. The work connects the story of the Fall with our desire to mend, redesign and extend the human body.
Pac-Man — Holy Virgin
At first, combining Pac-Man with the Holy Virgin may seem an unsuitable mismatch. Yet the result suggests the opposite. A section cut from her face becomes a visible scar of losing her son, making her appear even more fragile, while remaining divine.
