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Should you be thinking about restroom upgrades, you may want to avoid engaging this German artist to handle it.

Indeed, Herfeldt is highly skilled with a silicone gun, creating intriguing artworks from this unlikely art material. Yet as you look at her creations, the more one notices a certain aspect is a little strange.

The thick strands from the foam she crafts reach over display surfaces on which they sit, drooping downwards to the ground. The gnarled tubular forms swell before bursting open. Some creations leave their acrylic glass box homes entirely, evolving into a collector for grime and particles. It's safe to say the reviews would not be positive.

At times I get this sense that objects are alive in a room,” remarks the sculptor. This is why I started using this foam material as it offers such an organic sensation and look.”

Indeed there’s something rather body horror regarding the artist's creations, including the phallic bulge that protrudes, similar to a rupture, off its base at the exhibition's heart, and the winding tubes of foam which split open resembling bodily failures. Along a surface, are mounted prints depicting the sculptures seen from various perspectives: appearing as wormy parasites seen in scientific samples, or formations in a lab setting.

I am fascinated by is the idea in our bodies taking place that also have a life of their own,” the artist notes. Elements you can’t see or command.”

Regarding elements beyond her influence, the exhibition advertisement for the show displays an image of the leaky ceiling within her workspace in the German capital. It was built in the early 1970s and, she says, was instantly hated by local people since many older edifices were removed to allow its construction. The place was dilapidated as the artist – originally from Munich although she spent her youth near Hamburg prior to moving to the capital as a teenager – moved in.

This deteriorating space caused issues to Herfeldt – it was risky to display the sculptures without concern they might be damaged – however, it was compelling. With no building plans available, no one knew how to repair any of the issues which occurred. After a part of the roof at the artist's area was saturated enough it gave way completely, the sole fix involved installing it with another – perpetuating the issue.

At another site, she describes dripping was extreme that several drainage containers were installed above the false roof to channel the water to a different sink.

“I realised that the structure was like a body, a completely flawed entity,” she says.

This scenario evoked memories of the sci-fi movie, John Carpenter’s debut movie from the seventies about an AI-powered spacecraft that develops independence. And as you might notice from the show’s title – a trio of references – other cinematic works influenced to have influenced Herfeldt’s show. The three names indicate main characters from a horror classic, Halloween and the extraterrestrial saga as listed. She mentions an academic paper by the American professor, which identifies the last women standing an original movie concept – protagonists by themselves to overcome.

They often display toughness, on the silent side enabling their survival because she’s quite clever,” she elaborates regarding this trope. No drug use occurs or engage intimately. Regardless the audience's identity, we can all identify with the survivor.”

Herfeldt sees a similarity from these protagonists and her sculptures – elements that barely holding in place despite the pressures affecting them. So is her work really concerning social breakdown rather than simply dripping roofs? Similar to various systems, such components meant to insulate and guard from deterioration are gradually failing in our environment.

“Oh, totally,” says Herfeldt.

Prior to discovering her medium with sealant applicators, she experimented with different unconventional substances. Previous exhibitions featured tongue-like shapes crafted from the kind of nylon fabric found in within outdoor gear or apparel lining. Again there is the feeling these peculiar objects could come alive – a few are compressed as insects in motion, some droop heavily off surfaces or spill across doorways collecting debris from touch (The artist invites viewers to touch leaving marks on pieces). Like the silicone sculptures, those fabric pieces are similarly displayed in – and escaping from – budget-style display enclosures. They’re ugly looking things, and really that’s the point.

“They have a certain aesthetic that somehow you feel compelled by, yet simultaneously being quite repulsive,” the artist comments with a smile. “It tries to be not there, yet in reality very present.”

Herfeldt's goal isn't work to make you feel ease or aesthetically soothed. Conversely, her intention is to evoke discomfort, awkward, maybe even amused. But if you start to feel water droplets overhead too, remember this was foreshadowed.