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If you're planning bathroom renovations, it might be wise to avoid engaging the sculptor for the job.

Indeed, she's an expert in handling foam materials, creating intriguing creations out of an unusual art material. However longer you examine the artworks, the more it becomes apparent that something feels slightly unnerving.

The dense strands of sealant Herfeldt forms reach over the shelves on which they sit, sagging downwards towards the floor. The gnarled tubular forms swell until they split. Some creations escape the display cases completely, becoming an attractor for grime and particles. Let's just say the ratings would not be favorable.

There are moments I feel an impression that things seem animated in a room,” states Herfeldt. Hence I turned to silicone sealant because it has this very bodily feel and appearance.”

Indeed there is an element rather body horror in Herfeldt’s work, including the phallic bulge that protrudes, hernia-like, off its base at the exhibition's heart, to the intestinal coils of foam that burst like medical emergencies. On one wall, Herfeldt has framed images showing the pieces viewed from different angles: resembling squirming organisms picked up on a microscope, or growths on a petri-dish.

“It interests me is how certain elements in our bodies happening that also have their own life,” she says. Phenomena that are invisible or control.”

Talking of things she can’t control, the poster promoting the event includes an image of water damage overhead within her workspace located in Berlin. Constructed erected decades ago and according to her, was instantly hated among the community as numerous old buildings were removed in order to make way for it. The place was in a state of disrepair when Herfeldt – who was born in Munich although she spent her youth in northern Germany prior to moving to the capital as a teenager – moved in.

This decrepit property caused issues for her work – placing artworks was difficult her pieces anxiously potential harm – yet it also proved fascinating. Without any blueprints on hand, no one knew methods to address the problems that developed. Once an overhead section within her workspace got thoroughly soaked it collapsed entirely, the only solution was to replace the damaged part – and so the cycle continued.

At another site, the artist explains the water intrusion was severe that several collection units were installed within the drop ceiling to divert leaks to another outlet.

I understood that this place acted as a physical form, an entirely malfunctioning system,” she says.

These conditions evoked memories of a classic film, the director's first movie from the seventies about an AI-powered spacecraft that takes on a life of its own. As the exhibition's title suggests given the naming – three distinct names – more movies have inspired to have influenced the artist's presentation. Those labels refer to the female protagonists in the slasher film, the iconic thriller plus the sci-fi hit in that order. The artist references a 1987 essay from a scholar, that describes the last women standing an original movie concept – female characters isolated to save the day.

They often display toughness, rather quiet and they endure because she’s quite clever,” the artist explains of the archetypal final girl. They avoid substances or have sex. It is irrelevant the viewer’s gender, everyone can relate to this character.”

Herfeldt sees a connection between these characters and her sculptures – objects which only staying put under strain they’re under. So is her work more about cultural decay rather than simply leaky ceilings? Because like so many institutions, these materials that should seal and protect against harm are gradually failing within society.

“Absolutely,” says Herfeldt.

Earlier in her career with sealant applicators, Herfeldt used different unconventional substances. Recent shows featured tongue-like shapes crafted from the kind of nylon fabric typical for in insulated clothing or inside a jacket. Similarly, one finds the impression such unusual creations might animate – some are concertinaed as insects in motion, some droop heavily off surfaces blocking passages collecting debris from touch (The artist invites people to handle and dirty her art). As with earlier creations, those fabric pieces are also housed in – and escaping from – budget-style display enclosures. They’re ugly looking things, and that's the essence.

“They have a certain aesthetic that draws viewers highly drawn to, yet simultaneously being quite repulsive,” Herfeldt remarks with a smile. “It tries to be absent, yet in reality very present.”

Herfeldt's goal isn't art to provide comfortable or visual calm. Instead, she wants you to feel unease, strange, perhaps entertained. However, should you notice water droplets overhead as well, consider yourself this was foreshadowed.