Upholstered Pallet Offcut, 2025 by Annika Thiems

Created for the solo exhibition ‘On wings (or almost)’, ‘Upholstered Pallet Offcut (2025)’ forms part of a new sculptural series by German textile artist Annika Thiems, developed in response to ‘Parapapillonneries (1976)’ by Méret Oppenheim. Engaging with Surrealism, absurdity and psychoanalytic thought, Thiems translates Oppenheim’s butterfly imagery into a materially grounded contemporary sculpture. Referencing the irrational qualities of the original drawings, including wooden or stone-like wings, the work comprises a found pallet offcut upholstered with a remnant of furniture fabric. The vertical format and bilateral structure subtly echo the symmetry of insect wings, while the retained density and rigidity of solid wood introduce a palpable sense of weight. The sculpture proposes a union of tenderness and emotional gravity, balancing softness and resistance within a single form. Thiems resists fixed interpretation, allowing sensuality, dream logic and the grotesque to unfold without didactic framing. Her upholstery techniques, learned in her family’s furniture workshop, function as an inherited formal vocabulary through which pre-verbal and unconscious impulses are articulated. For collectors focused on contemporary sculpture, textile-based practices and post-Surrealist discourse, this work exemplifies Thiems’ precise synthesis of craft, conceptual clarity and psychological depth.