I Was Placed Somewhere Called Safe and Never Returned, 2026.

61 x 45 x 85 cm

3D printed resin, acrylic, oak box, custom fitted padding by Jonas Jönsson

This sculpture functions as the pivotal material condensation of the exhibition, Foreign Object. The sculpture is a three-dimensional manifestation of the drawings, paintings, and sketches that precede it spatially. As visitors move through the exhibition from right to left, the object gradually takes form through representation until it appears fully realized in this sculptural state.

Placed before the final section of the exhibition, the work marks a decisive transition. What was previously visible and legible becomes contained. The foreign object is no longer circulating as an image or speculation but is instead enclosed within an oak box lined with lavish red padding. The presentation recreates practices of archiving, collecting, and musealization. The object is treated simultaneously as a relic, an exotic artifact, and a captured entity. Care and violence become indistinguishable.

Within the exhibition narrative, this moment signals removal rather than preservation. The box does not protect the object so much as it authorizes its disappearance. The sculpture stages how foreignness is rendered manageable through containment, how it can be taken, claimed, and stored under the guise of safety. What is placed somewhere called safe is no longer accessible. It does not return.