DOMINATRIX, 2022 “...examining the table as a social object. With camp sensibility, Berg peruses the history of human civilisation in the search of tables and their surprisingly symbolic importance: ubiquitous but always peculiar objects that continuously assert, negotiate, and subvert social dynamics. Berg’s table typology DOMINATRIX, where the legs of tables are replaced with brightly-colored high-heeled latex boots. The series reflects on numerous visual metaphors around strength and power, most vividly the phenomenon of “paw feet:” ornamental animal-like table feet, a phenomenon that was popularized in 17th-century Europe. Deemed desirable for its elegant curvature, paw feet also allowed furniture to assume the symbolic qualities vested in certain animals, such as lions (majesty, strength, courage, justice). As a relic of a bygone trend, paw feet are remarkable for overtly playing with animistic metaphors in design. The high-heeled latex boot connotes a very different kind of power, one vested not in nature but in the shifting status of gender in industrial society. The high-heel, of course, holds a wider iconic symbolism: in Cinderella, the shoe that fits marks a transformation from girl to woman and proletarian to princess; in Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s red shoes lead the way to an autonomous life with her chosen family of queers. Originally a brand amongst the peasants of 16th century Europe, The Sun King of France was forced to dramatically exaggerate the dimensions of heels as he introduced them to the court, so as to literally “raise” the aristocracy from the lower classes, who, in turn, were banned from wearing them. Playing with the cultural figure of the dominatrix, and the culture-wide fetishisation of feet, Berg employs camp - its championing of the anti-serious, the frivolous, the ironic - to playfully urge audiences (and table users) to reflect on the dynamics of “elevation”; and suggests how tables can be turned once again by way of the high heel...” Text by @jeppeugelvig On view @princ.eeleven Thanks @robertgrunenberg