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 Guest curator Sya van 't Vlie has coined the terms 'off skin' and ‘sub skin’ for this exhibition of works that center on skin. Sya distinguishes two types of 'off skin': (1) the 'off skin of the sculpture' or the immediate surroundings of a sculpture, including the viewer, and (2) the 'off skin of sculpture as a discipline' which links sculpture to other art forms and to nature.
The wooden sculptures of Liesje Smolders (1952) feel like skin, while the crochet and plaster sculptures of Piia Maria (1975) look like skin. Through the surface of their sculptures, the artists suggest what goes on 'sub skin'. Their opening performances 'Circles' and 'Melopee' refer to skin, but also to ‘sub skin' and to the ‘off skin’ area between sculpture and theatre. Piia's second skin of spun filament in 'Circles' and the wooden second skin of 'Melopee' in which Liesje and her partner lie rocking to and fro, act both as a protection from and a passage to the off skin area, just as our own first skin.

The exhibition includes sculptures and installations. Piia Maria's still life Litlle lie raises questions about the ideal image of woman. The sound installation 'Stream' which she made in cooperation with Amos Elmaliah is related to 'Circles'. By showing her series 'boys' in Wageningen, Liesje Smolders reacts to the commotion surrounding the planned giant copper obelisk-shaped Liberaton monument in Wageningen that rises and falls depending on the level of sunlight, and spurts flames out of the top during important festivals. The boys are a series of phalusses, including the vigorous 'Take a seat' and the touching 'Everything is holy'. More prudent is 'Fernweh', a set of two gigantic legs made from small pieces of wood, that express the desire to travel. In the garden of Gallery Wit two installation-like sculptures are displayed: 'Drifting Space II' that earned Piia both the jury and the public award at Sculpture The Hague 2002, and Liesje made 'Full of the Past' as the starting point of a future interactive walk along sculptures.

Sya van 't Vlie studied History of Art and Archeology at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in Art of the Newest Era, in particular three-dimensional art (sculpture, installations, performance, land art, art in public space). She is custodian of the sculpture collection of the Amsterdam Fine Arts Foundation. She also works as a free lance publicist, guide, exhibition maker and advisor in the field of fine arts. Before she was employed in various functions with the central authorities and in trade and industry, among others as co-ordinator of the Art Ways Foundation in Rijswijk and as a volunteer at the Museum Sculpture at Sea in Scheveningen. Since 2000 she acted as a committee/board member, later as a ballot committee member of the sculptors' collective ABK.