NICU Pump

2026

sculpture, installation

8' x 7' x 8' approx., dimensions variable

pantyhose, yarn, fake fur, inflated PVC, wire, silicone nipples, oxygen tubes, fringe, thread

NICU Pump hangs at the center of Neonatal Boudoir as the installation’s circulatory organ — a suspended, bulbous body of inflated translucent membranes stretched in pantyhose and threaded with red and blue vein-lines, its upper chambers swollen like compound eyes or paired hearts. From its underside, yellow plasma-strands drip toward the floor: nutrient feed for the crèches beyond. Segmented tendrils branch outward and down, terminating in tufts of pink synthetic fur and oozing puddles of red yarn — lines that snake toward the other incubated bodies in the chamber. Part organ, part chandelier, part vascular machine, it sustains the colony it tends. It enacts Kristeva’s abject maternal — the nourishing body whose fluids erase the line between self and offspring, care and consumption.

Photo of NICU Pump by Luther Thie
Photo of NICU Pump by Luther Thie
Photo of NICU Pump by Luther Thie
Photo of NICU Pump by Luther Thie
Photo of NICU Pump by Luther Thie