phantom limbs

PROSTHETICS  tell the story of the bodies they once fitted in terms of their absences. They cannot help but remind us of the absent limbs that they come to stand in for.  Seen alone as bespoke pieces of craftsmanship, they recreate the absent contours of the individual’s body they were tailored to match, and of which they once formed part.

Phantom Limbs make space for absence within the tightly-packed rooms of the Museum of Art and Design in Copenhagen. The teak vitrines that Kaare Klint designed for the museum’s artefacts have turned in on each other, knotted and interlocked in such a way as to repeatedly frame themselves, their content and their context.

Enshrined and integral to the piece is a child’s prosthetic leg, which is a reminder of a whole series of absences. A leg lost. A child that outgrew his or her artificial limb. A child that grew old and has long since passed away.