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If you're planning restroom upgrades, it's advisable not to choose engaging this German artist to handle it.

Certainly, she's highly skilled in handling foam materials, producing intriguing sculptures out of an unusual art material. However longer you look at these pieces, the more one notices a certain aspect is a little strange.

Those hefty tubes from the foam she produces stretch beyond display surfaces where they rest, sagging over the sides towards the floor. Those twisted tubular forms swell before bursting open. A few artworks break free from the display cases fully, evolving into a magnet of debris and fibers. Let's just say the feedback would not be favorable.

“I sometimes have this sense that objects possess life inside an area,” says the sculptor. This is why I started using silicone sealant as it offers a distinctly physical texture and feeling.”

In fact there is an element somewhat grotesque regarding these sculptures, including the suggestive swelling jutting out, similar to a rupture, off its base in the centre of the gallery, to the intestinal coils from the material that rupture like medical emergencies. On one wall, the artist presents photocopies showing the pieces viewed from different angles: appearing as squirming organisms seen in scientific samples, or formations on culture plates.

“It interests me is how certain elements inside human forms taking place which possess their own life,” she says. Elements that are invisible or manage.”

Talking of elements beyond her influence, the promotional image for the show includes an image of water damage overhead at her creative space in the German capital. Constructed made in the seventies and, she says, was quickly despised from residents because a lot of old buildings were removed in order to make way for it. It was already in a state of disrepair when Herfeldt – who was born in Munich but grew up north of Hamburg before arriving in Berlin in her youth – took up residence.

This decrepit property caused issues for her work – placing artworks was difficult her art works without fearing potential harm – but it was also fascinating. With no building plans accessible, no one knew the way to fix the malfunctions that developed. Once an overhead section within her workspace got thoroughly soaked it collapsed entirely, the single remedy was to replace it with another – thus repeating the process.

Elsewhere on the property, Herfeldt says the water intrusion was severe that a series of collection units were installed in the suspended ceiling to channel leaks to another outlet.

I understood that the building acted as a physical form, a totally dysfunctional body,” the artist comments.

The situation reminded her of the sci-fi movie, John Carpenter’s debut cinematic piece concerning a conscious ship which becomes autonomous. And as you might notice given the naming – three distinct names – that’s not the only film to have influenced this exhibition. These titles point to the female protagonists in the slasher film, another scary movie and the extraterrestrial saga as listed. Herfeldt cites a 1987 essay by the American professor, outlining these surviving characters an original movie concept – female characters isolated to triumph.

They often display toughness, rather quiet and she can survive due to intelligence,” the artist explains about such characters. They avoid substances or engage intimately. And it doesn’t matter who is watching, we can all identify with the final girl.”

Herfeldt sees a connection between these characters with her creations – elements that barely staying put under strain they’re under. So is her work more about societal collapse beyond merely leaky ceilings? Similar to various systems, these materials that should seal and protect from deterioration in fact are decaying in our environment.

“Absolutely,” she confirms.

Earlier in her career in the silicone gun, Herfeldt used different unconventional substances. Recent shows included tongue-like shapes using a synthetic material typical for on a sleeping bag or apparel lining. Similarly, one finds the impression these strange items seem lifelike – some are concertinaed as insects in motion, some droop heavily on vertical planes blocking passages attracting dirt from footprints (The artist invites viewers to touch and soil the works). Like the silicone sculptures, those fabric pieces also occupy – and escaping from – cheap looking acrylic glass boxes. The pieces are deliberately unappealing, and that's the essence.

“They have a certain aesthetic that somehow you feel highly drawn to, and at the same time being quite repulsive,” the artist comments grinning. “It attempts to seem invisible, yet in reality very present.”

Herfeldt's goal isn't art to provide ease or beauty. Instead, she aims for uncomfortable, odd, maybe even amused. And if there's something wet dripping overhead additionally, remember you haven’t been warned.