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If you're planning restroom upgrades, you may want to avoid employing the sculptor to handle it.

Truly, she's highly skilled with a silicone gun, creating intriguing artworks from this unlikely art material. But the more observe these pieces, the stronger it becomes apparent that something seems somewhat off.

The thick lengths made of silicone she crafts reach beyond their supports on which they sit, sagging downwards towards the floor. Those twisted tubular forms bulge before bursting open. Some creations break free from their transparent enclosures fully, becoming an attractor for grime and particles. It's safe to say the ratings might not get positive.

There are moments I feel this sense that objects possess life in a room,” remarks the German artist. “That’s why I turned to this foam material as it offers this very bodily feel and appearance.”

Indeed there’s something almost visceral about Herfeldt’s work, including that protruding shape jutting out, similar to a rupture, from the support in the centre of the gallery, to the intestinal coils from the material that burst like medical emergencies. Displayed nearby, are mounted images of the works captured in multiple views: resembling squirming organisms picked up on a microscope, or formations on a petri-dish.

I am fascinated by is how certain elements within us happening which possess independent existence,” Herfeldt explains. Phenomena you can’t see or command.”

Regarding unmanageable factors, the promotional image for the show features a picture of water damage overhead at her creative space in the German capital. It was built in the early 1970s and, she says, was quickly despised among the community because a lot of older edifices were torn down to allow its construction. The place was in a state of disrepair when Herfeldt – who was born in Munich yet raised north of Hamburg prior to moving to the capital in her youth – moved in.

This decrepit property caused issues for her work – it was risky to display her art works without fearing potential harm – yet it also proved fascinating. Without any blueprints available, it was unclear how to repair the problems which occurred. When the ceiling panel within her workspace became so sodden it fell apart fully, the sole fix meant swapping it with another – and so the cycle continued.

Elsewhere on the property, she describes the leaking was so bad that several collection units were set up in the suspended ceiling to channel leaks to another outlet.

“I realised that this place resembled an organism, an entirely malfunctioning system,” she says.

These conditions evoked memories of a classic film, the director's first cinematic piece featuring a smart spaceship that develops independence. As the exhibition's title suggests from the show’s title – Alice, Laurie & Ripley – other cinematic works influenced to have influenced Herfeldt’s show. These titles point to main characters from a horror classic, another scary movie plus the sci-fi hit respectively. Herfeldt cites a 1987 essay from a scholar, that describes the last women standing as a unique film trope – female characters isolated to overcome.

They often display toughness, reserved in nature and they endure due to intelligence,” the artist explains regarding this trope. They avoid substances or engage intimately. And it doesn’t matter the viewer’s gender, everyone can relate to the final girl.”

She draws a similarity between these characters to her artworks – objects which only holding in place despite the pressures they face. Does this mean the art focused on cultural decay beyond merely dripping roofs? Because like so many institutions, such components that should seal and protect us from damage in fact are decaying within society.

“Completely,” she confirms.

Earlier in her career using foam materials, Herfeldt used different unconventional substances. Recent shows included forms resembling tongues crafted from a synthetic material found in within outdoor gear or apparel lining. Similarly, one finds the sense these peculiar objects might animate – some are concertinaed like caterpillars mid-crawl, some droop heavily from walls or extend through entries collecting debris from touch (She prompts viewers to touch and soil the works). As with earlier creations, those fabric pieces also occupy – and escaping from – budget-style transparent cases. These are unattractive objects, and really that’s the point.

“These works possess a particular style which makes one highly drawn to, and at the same time being quite repulsive,” Herfeldt remarks amusedly. “The art aims for not there, yet in reality very present.”

Herfeldt is not making work to make you feel relaxation or aesthetically soothed. Instead, her intention is to evoke discomfort, strange, perhaps entertained. However, should you notice something wet dripping from above as well, don’t say this was foreshadowed.