Anna-Sophie Berger’s ‘Corner Woman’ (2025) continues the artist’s 2D work ‘Portrait’ (2019) in a 3D installation. In the former, a digitally rendered face is symmetrically bisected by a right angle, whereas in the new, site-specific installation, the human form is adapted to the architectural conditions of ‘human-made architecture’. Each sculpture in this series is made with a process called softbody collision modeling that is used in computer graphics to create simulations of the movements of deformable objects, for instance in video games and animations. The process is both violent and generative, allowing programmers to shape digital objects without the constraints of physical matter.

Berger models the digital figures in response to the rectangular walls of ordinary human architecture. The resulting sculptures are milled and lacquered to resemble commercial display mannequins. The artist engages science fiction narratives by writers like Samuel Delany and Arthur C. Clarke, who consider the body an organic vessel exposed to the pressures of late capitalism, Nicolas de Larmessin’s 17th century ‘Costumes grotesques’ engravings showing workers clothed—or constrained—by objects that make up their trade, and philosopher Émile-Auguste Chartier’s (Alain) pacifist advocacy in the light of World War II, addressing the violent effects of external ‘modifiers’ on the human body.