Jewellery – Linking Bodies
Sculpture in copper, acrylic and liquid
Cultural ideals of containment and control demand bodies that do not leak, do not deviate and do not decay. Yet bodies age, sweat, absorb and gradually change in response to time and the environment.
Surplus Bodies is a copper cast of Fomes fomentarius, a parasitic fungus that feeds on living trees and encourages the decay of the dead, anchored to a transparent acrylic structure. The structure appears to sweat, its droplets condensing and dispersing as the copper darkens over time. This transformation embodies the duality of the fungus – its role as both a parasite and nurturer, demonstrating cycles of decay, growth and renewal.
The work stages a system of interdependence in which growth and decay are intertwined. In an age of optimised productivity, where efficiency dictates value, it proposes a counter-image: a body that transforms, reveals its vulnerability and refuses to be sealed off.
Thank you, Pieter Elbers, for your technical support and for joining me in exploring what initially seemed impossible.