broken altar
(phantom load)
INSTALLATION | DORTMUND_2025
"broken altar (phantom load)" is the second piece in an ongoing series exploring inherited values, spatial memory, and the emotional weight of dysfunctional environments. At the center of this work is a wired dining table—cut in half, yet still offering a shared dish. Traditionally a symbol of family and community, the table here becomes a fractured site of tension and reflection.
Drawing from my personal experience of growing up in a household where the table was never used for its intended purpose—gathering, connecting, dining—I reflect on the emotional and spatial disconnect that shaped my understanding of family as passive coexistence. This personal narrative opens a wider critique of the erosion of communal life, the rise of individualism, and the environmental and psychological consequences of these shifts.
Developed during my residency at Künstlerhaus Dortmund, the installation has grown to include site-specific material research. Behind the table, jelly-like transparent panels hang and slowly dissolve, evoking walls that disintegrate under unseen pressures. These fragile, melting surfaces reflect the silent energies that erode space—a metaphor for how toxic or dysfunctional environments can consume us slowly, without notice. The work speaks to the often-invisible privilege of safe and nurturing space, and the psychic toll of its absence.
The installation also includes a sensory component: small edible jelly pieces offered to the audience. Created using beer as a base and infused with bitter, tangy, spicy, and earthy flavors — tamarind, burned sugar, apple cider, fennel, cloves, turmeric — these jellies act as emotional anchors—translating the project's psychological and spatial themes into taste.
Through fragmented materials, unstable structures, and flavors, "broken altar (phantom load)" examines what it means to inherit spaces that do not hold us—and how we might find function even within dysfunction.
location: Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany
photography and video: Barbara Gocníková
communication and support: Künstlerhaus Dortmund