5 Floors

5 Floors structures its composition as a series of distinct horizontal strata, likely evoking the cross-sectional view of a building or the accumulated layers of domestic life. Lippens builds each "floor" as a discrete zone of material activity, combining fragments of antique Japanese and contemporary fabrics with hand-painted papers and expressive stitching that reinforces the horizontal banding. Thread acts as both structural element and drawn line, mapping the edges between levels and suggesting the routines and objects that inhabit each space. The work's title implies both architectural fact and metaphorical layering — each stratum carrying its own texture, color register, and collaged imagery. Washi and other translucent papers allow underlayers to remain partially visible, giving the surface a palimpsest quality characteristic of Lippens' practice. The interplay of opacity and transparency across the vertical stack creates spatial ambiguity, so that "floors" read simultaneously as physical spaces and as sedimentary records of time and material accumulation.