The Shedding

The Shedding traces the slow accumulation of synthetic matter within bodies and environments, where the boundaries between these two worlds begin to dissolve.

A hybrid body emerges through the accumulation of synthetic matter, its appearance shifting between human, animal, and material.

As it moves through its own body, it encounters unfamiliar extensions and shifts from within. Plastic remains ambiguous, neither clearly friend nor foe. Liquids move through, over, and out of the body, while plastic accumulates in the surrounding space, forming an environment that both contains and extends it.

What happens when the materials we consume begin to inhabit and alter us?

The Shedding originates from a visual memory of an animal standing knee-deep in a summer lake, its body immersed within a dense, shifting surface. In this quiet moment, the boundary between body and environment gives way, and what sustains life also carries the potential for contamination.

This image develops into a performative and material exploration, in which a hybrid character moves through its metamorphosis. There is no fixed narrative; the work unfolds through gesture, surface, and material interaction.

Liquids, plastics, and bodily movement operate in continuity, forming an environment that both contains and extends the body. These elements act materially rather than symbolically. Ecological transformations occur beyond visibility — accumulating slowly and often unnoticed, yet continuously altering bodies and ecosystems.

Filmed in the Quinan Drying Stove at the Royal Gunpowder Mills, a former industrial site, the work is situated within an architecture marked by extraction and abandonment. The building, with its broken windows and empty door frames, allows free-roaming deer from the surrounding landscape to move through and take shelter within.

Art Direction, Costume & Performance: Katrin Spranger, 2026
Movement Consultancy: Sarah Warsop, Isobelle Palmer
Costume and Installation Assistance: Louisa Borneman, Hyoeeun Shim
Film and Editing: Louis Thornton, Film and Editing Assistant: Zac Davis
Sound: Cylinder Five – Chris Zabriskie
Materials: Plastic bottles donated by Greenseas Trust