Hydrababy II  

INSTALLATION & PERFORMANCE
2023 FABRIKculture, Hégenheim (FR)

Material: tomato vines, porcelain, metal, threaded rods, glass panes from dismantled MacBook screens, engraved plexiglass, COVID test buffer solution, elastic cord, polystyrene mirror, mini spotlights

© Susi Hinz. Photo: Fiona Rahn & Sibel Kocakaya



Hydrababy II was developed for the basement space of a former thread factory. Its point of departure is the hydra polyp’s capacity for asexual reproduction through budding. This principle of detachment and regeneration is transposed onto the spatial structure of the installation. A suspended assemblage of exoskeleton-like forms made of porcelain, tomato vines, plexiglass, and metal stretches between light and shadow. In the sculpture Flying Organ 3, scale ultimately shifts: the space itself becomes object. Within a cubic, orange chromatic field, a further porcelain structure unfolds into a kaleidoscopic configuration in which distinctions between body, interior, and exterior are reconfigured. Hydrababy II as a performance explores the relationship between human and non-human "resources." The performance concept is rooted in investigating sculptural possibilities that arise when organic material hybrids come into contact with the human body.