Skin & Bones

Skin & Bones was commissioned for the exhibition my-canvas by Kvadrat. When we started experimenting with the material properties of the canvas textile by Kvadrat, I was most fascinated by its sculptural qualities when put into drapery and how it was covering up while at the same time revealing. Conceptually I was interested in the meaning of the canvas* as a platform or background in relation to the work that it is staging.

The project Skin & Bones explores the activity of space-making as a continuous negotiation between bodies, objects and spatial structures. Laid on the ground, a flat, apparently two-dimensional square of Canvas* – the ‘skin’ – waits to be activated by the ‘bones’: an assortment of shaped tools employed by human bodies. Only together they can generate an endless variety of sculptural forms that at the same time are interior spaces.

* Canvas (noun)?1. A heavy, coarse, closely woven textile of cotton, hemp or flax, mostly used for tents and sails. 2. A piece of such textile on which a painting, especially an oil painting, is executed. 3. The background against which events unfold, as in a historical narrative. 4. A tent or group of tents. A circus tent. 5. Sports. The floor of a ring in which boxing or wrestling takes place.

Year: 2017 / Team: Mariejke Kruijssen, Elena Steffan, Petra Popangelova / Comissioned by: Kvadrat / Exhibition: My Canvas / Location: Somerset House London / Curation: Constance Rubini, Njusja de Gier, Jeffrey Bennett, Hans Maier-Aichen / Pictures: Casper Sejersen / Video: Rudi Schröder / Video editing: Elena Steffan, Oli Weiss /