Painful Flowers

Installation, found objects, slide projector

2026

At a time when idleness, hedonism and self-centredness are celebrated; when success, wealth, infantilism, masculinity and exaggerated sexuality are praised, I have learned to camouflage myself well.

I imagine covering this taxidermist’s storage room with glitter, decorating it with feathers, weaving lace into it. I put on braces and garters and make sure to change my bandages on time. I want everyone to like me. I want to like myself. So I hide everything carefully, disguising every flaw.

I try very hard to always be a nice little kitty. Don't I?

Perhaps I am worse than the others, because I know that Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil are nothing more than cheap plastic.

** The work incorporates home-video material addressing the taboo surrounding imperfection: ageing, illness, and bodily changes after childbirth.*

* Title references The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire (1857).

The installation consists of documentation of the performance Kitty (3 min.), bandages, braces, adhesive plasters, and compression stockings worn by the artist between 2025 and 2026, alongside a slideshow of the artist’s eroticized self-portraits.