Born to a wealthy Polish family, Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930–2017) witnessed the Nazi invasion of Poland and the imposition of Communism after the Second World War, which brought poverty to many, herself included. In 1950, she enrolled at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts, where she discovered textiles, a medium with which she developed her distinctive artistic voice. Exhibiting from the late 1960s, she gained widespread acclaim for her ‘Abakans’ – monumental woven fibre sculptures that hang from ceilings and which are regarded as early examples of installation art. Later, she worked increasingly with metal, creating mixed media sculptures exploring the human form. This work, from a series depicting figures in cages, was created as Communism was collapsing in Eastern Europe. Resembling a mummified body, the headless burlap figure serves as a stark reminder of mortality and vulnerability, which is only heightened by the lack of shelter and protection from its iron home.