What if we set aside the conventional and relished in the wondrous universe of the in-between?

Lady in Rug is a 130 kilo soft-robotic sculpture with a total surface of 15 square meters of hand-tufted wool. The work explores the traditional boundaries of fashion, everyday objects and the human body by blurring and questioning their recognisable elements. By changing their characteristics, the question arises whether the body transforms itself into the object or the object into the body and to what extent fashion still has a function. 

The visitor sees a woman’s body melted into a large, ornamental carpet while her body is breathing and her arm is in motion. Her tactility in material, shape and movement tempts the spectator to come closer. Yet, she might scare you away with her hyper-realistic, almost imperceptible breathing. Is she alive?

In essence, this project turned out to be about the desire for connection and intimacy and investigates why we attach value to the relationship between a person and the object. With this relationship in mind we questions whether the object is humanized or the human objectified. Both in the physical and the digital world, the sculpture focuses on the binary distinction between disciplines, interacts with the viewer and questions the performative aspect of fashion in which the materiality of the body is liberated into something new. Within this work a new plasticity is explored by stretching and negotiating limitations and extremities.

Lady in Rug made her debute at This Art Fair in 2022. She became a top 10 “must-see” during Dutch Design Week (2022) and got selected as Best Studio Design for the Carpet Design Awards in Hannover (2023). She presented herself again at Bureau Europa during Fashionclash Festival (2023) and enjoyed all the attention during Kunstrai (2023). Lady in Rug is represented by Rademakers Gallery and a part of their collection.