Bedding, 2024

latex, cotton, metal

Where do our bodies end? One might say at the fingertips, at the very last layer of the epidermis. When I shed a skin cell, does it no longer belong to my body? My gaze extends the boundaries of my body towards the horizon. I hold your arm, and on a cosmic scale, our bodies become one. Our heartbeats sync, our brains release a cocktail of hormones. We merge electric fields. The skin barrier is merely an illusion of individuality, constraining your self-perception into a rigid and immovable shape. I propose that we embody our intimate spaces just as they embody us. I embody my house by leaving imprints on the stairs, by bringing home a purple carpet, by wearing down the wall under the light switch ever so slightly, my fingertips navigating my home in the dark. My home embodies me by making me change my gait on the crooked stair without thinking, by imprinting itself into my habits, and leaving a nostalgia-shaped scar deep in my hippocampus. My body extends to my home, my bedroom, my bed. For this installation, I cast latex imprints of my own body and used them to create a meticulously crafted bedding set. Liquid latex conforms to the shape of the body, and after peeling it from the skin, every pore, wrinkle, and scar is forever imprinted. I used this material as fabric to create large quilt-like pieces for the pillowcase, duvet cover and a bedsheet. Up close, every square bears my scars, hair follicles, and a spiderweb of wrinkles—an autoportrait of my body as it was in the spring of 2024. The blanket motif was the main inspiration for the piece. A particular blanket—my dear friend’s, who departed too early—bore the weight of his body in my mind. After he was gone, in some sense, he became the blanket—his imprint, his corporeal form was just there, the wrinkles where he gently set it upon the bed, the skin cells, and the already-dissipated warmth. The installation ‘Bedding’ was inspired by this longing—to find parts of ourselves outside the physical form. The installation is currently exhibited at the Vilnius Academy of Arts Graduation Show participating gallery Atletika, in the exhibition “Spirtys” (“Kicks”).