Milena Naef (b. 1990, The Netherlands)
Fleeting parts, 2016

Naef’s work feels relevant to me on rather subconscious level at this point. It’s formal qualities trigger my emotions and my sense-making alike. I appreciate the performative element that is not the most common in combination with sculpture. I appreciate how sculpture becomes wearable and, therefore, jewellery-like. However, it is not totally obvious who is wearing whom – is the body adorning the stone, or is it the marble adorning the body. Then again, it is not so much about adornment, perhaps not at all, as about our presence and embeddedness in the physical world, our “choreography” in relation to that world as Naef would put it herself. Perhaps it is in acknowledgement of that inescapable relation and in open-ended exploration of the meanings that it generates that I find my affinity with the work. Most inspiring!