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When considering restroom upgrades, it's advisable to avoid engaging this German artist for such tasks.

Certainly, she's a whiz using sealant applicators, crafting compelling sculptures with a surprising medium. But longer you look at her creations, the more one notices a certain aspect feels slightly strange.

The thick lengths made of silicone she crafts reach beyond display surfaces on which they sit, hanging off the edges to the ground. The gnarled tubular forms expand until they split. Certain pieces leave their acrylic glass box homes completely, turning into a magnet of debris and fibers. One could imagine the feedback would not be pretty.

At times I get the feeling that objects are alive inside an area,” remarks Herfeldt. This is why I turned to silicone sealant because it has such an organic sensation and look.”

In fact there’s something somewhat grotesque in Herfeldt’s work, from that protruding shape jutting out, like a medical condition, from its cylindrical stand within the showspace, to the intestinal coils from the material that rupture resembling bodily failures. Along a surface, the artist presents prints depicting the sculptures seen from various perspectives: resembling squirming organisms picked up on a microscope, or colonies on culture plates.

I am fascinated by is the idea inside human forms occurring which possess independent existence,” she says. Phenomena that are invisible or control.”

Talking of things she can’t control, the promotional image for the show displays a photograph of water damage overhead at her creative space located in Berlin. The building had been built in the early 1970s and, she says, was instantly hated by local people because a lot of older edifices were torn down for its development. By the time in a state of disrepair as the artist – who was born in Munich yet raised in northern Germany before arriving in Berlin during her teens – moved in.

The rundown building was frustrating to Herfeldt – it was risky to display the sculptures without concern they might be damaged – yet it also proved intriguing. Without any blueprints available, nobody had a clue the way to fix the malfunctions that arose. Once an overhead section within her workspace became so sodden it gave way completely, the sole fix meant swapping it with another – and so the cycle continued.

Elsewhere on the property, she describes the water intrusion was severe so multiple shower basins were installed above the false roof to divert leaks to another outlet.

I understood that this place acted as a physical form, a totally dysfunctional body,” Herfeldt states.

The situation evoked memories of Dark Star, the director's first movie from the seventies featuring a smart spaceship which becomes autonomous. As the exhibition's title suggests given the naming – a trio of references – more movies have inspired impacting Herfeldt’s show. The three names point to the female protagonists from a horror classic, Halloween and the extraterrestrial saga respectively. The artist references an academic paper by the American professor, which identifies the last women standing as a unique film trope – female characters isolated to triumph.

These figures are somewhat masculine, rather quiet and they endure due to intelligence,” says Herfeldt regarding this trope. “They don’t take drugs or engage intimately. Regardless who is watching, we can all identify with this character.”

The artist identifies a similarity linking these figures to her artworks – elements that barely staying put despite the pressures they’re under. Is the exhibition more about societal collapse beyond merely dripping roofs? Similar to various systems, these materials that should seal and protect us from damage in fact are decaying within society.

“Completely,” responds the artist.

Before finding inspiration using foam materials, she experimented with other unusual materials. Previous exhibitions included forms resembling tongues using the kind of nylon fabric found in in insulated clothing or in coats. Again there is the sense these strange items seem lifelike – some are concertinaed like caterpillars mid-crawl, some droop heavily on vertical planes blocking passages gathering grime from contact (The artist invites viewers to touch leaving marks on pieces). Similar to the foam artworks, those fabric pieces are also housed in – and breaking out of – budget-style transparent cases. The pieces are deliberately unappealing, and really that’s the point.

“The sculptures exhibit a specific look that draws viewers very attracted to, yet simultaneously being quite repulsive,” the artist comments grinning. “The art aims for absent, however, it is highly noticeable.”

Herfeldt is not making work to make you feel ease or visual calm. Conversely, her intention is to evoke discomfort, odd, or even humor. But if you start to feel a moist sensation overhead as well, remember you haven’t been warned.