Drawings and mixed-media sculptures begun in Berlin in January 2026, held in the archive as an in-progress chapter rather than a finished collection.
A chapter begins in Berlin
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies began in Berlin in January 2026. I do not know yet whether it should be called a finished collection. I do know that this was when I began to understand that groups of related works could develop as sustained chapters.
The name comes from the recurring image at the centre: broken, bloody teeth, bodies that fragment, and forms carrying damage and persistence at once. The sculptures were part of The Floor launch in January 2026, in a room made for work while it is still becoming precise.
What the body carries
For years I have had repeating, never-ending visions, mostly as dreams, of broken, bloody teeth falling from my head and coming all at once into my hands. In reality, I have also struggled with an autoimmune disease. At times it affects my body and mind and can make me feel out of control, even on a cellular and DNA level.
We are fragile, but the body takes on our score. Stress, death, health and the attempt to regain control through making all entered this work. The sculptures are not an illustration of those experiences. They are where those pressures became physical.
Drawings acquire weight
The work started as drawings and expanded into small mixed-media sculptures. Moving from paper into objects allowed the forms to take on weight, surface and a physical presence that the drawing could only suggest.
The white and black objects are related without being identical. Their differences in scale, posture and surface matter as much as their repetition. A group can behave like a body while still containing individual damage and variation.
Keeping the collection question open
This is the first point where the collection idea has become structurally useful to me. A collection is not a marketing label placed on finished objects after the fact. It can give one visual question enough time to develop across drawing and object.
For now, the archive holds Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies as an in-progress chapter. It has a name, a beginning, recurring forms and a movement between materials. Whether it becomes the first formally confirmed collection remains a studio decision.
Credits
- Original Sketchy Shona record based on supplied Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies documentation and statement text.