Tender relics, the urge to seek something anciently true, revealing secrets. Beneath the surface linger forgotten or erased stories, fragments that once held the trace of a body. What remains, though broken and incomplete, becomes holy, a relic charged with what it once was and what it may become. Actions repeat: what makes us whole and what gives us purpose. Here, remnants become evidence.

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In collaboration with Isabella Rudzki (b. 1995, Germany), Tender Relics offers an intimate glimpse into a world both familiar and timeless. Relics that hold memories take on a powerful presence. Within this, themes of true identity, labor, and careful observation emerge. These forms operate as vessels for what has been held softly—touch, work, inheritance—carrying the remnants of gestures passed across generations. It becomes an excavation site of devotion, a reminder of the bodies and histories that shaped it, and of what, once unearthed, will begin again. What emerges is a landscape of intimacies—delicate yet concrete. Familiarity becomes sacred, and relics become foundations.

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Together, Rudzki and Kramer developed Tender Relics as both a curated selection of existing works and new collaborative pieces formed into an installation that invites close examination. The artists filmed a performance in Bavaria at Rudzki’s home, working directly with natural clay from the agricultural village. The film traces a systematic, almost habitual sequence of actions: gestures that appear simple or even futile, yet accumulate meaning through repetition. In addition to the film, Kramer and Rudzki photographed actions taking place in the film with a thermal paper camera. Present throughout is the holiness of the true body, both as a living sculpture and as a vessel for acts of care, tending to what remains.