Nathalie Djurberg
Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg
Things Cut in Half and Split in Two, 2013
Polyurethane plastic with embedded electronics
16 x 12 x 18 in
Edition of 20
Produced by Lisa Ivorian-Jones for the New Museum of Contemporary Art
Price Upon Request
In order to create this generous gift to the New Museum, the artists have, for the first time, fused both Djurberg's video and her sculpture into one object, and created an artwork into which the viewer must directly enter. The edition, in a series of 20, has been cast in polyurethane plastic from a Styrofoam sculpture of an ice cream box with a separate lid, handmade by the artist, and each slightly unique. The surface of the plastic is white and slightly transparent; surreal and otherworldly. Djurberg has created a new stop motion animation film, unique to this edition, which plays on a continual loop on a monitor imbedded inside the ice cream box, as her collaborator Hans Berg's musical score plays from speakers, also imbedded within.
In Nathalie's words, she wanted to create a universe inside which, "a person's head would fit, so that you don't just look inside, but get to be inside; like falling down the rabbit hole...(casting the viewer) in space, in a sort of cosmic dance, from mundane to super-mundane, and when you take out your head from the box, you can put your whiskey glass on top of it, and forget that you have the universe next to you."
The ice cream cones depicted in the film are beautifully constructed by hand from plasticine and clear polythene, and are reminiscent of the flowers in Djurberg's film for Venice, The Experiment, 2009. The artist has replaced her oft-depicted interior stage sets with a flat black background. The highly colorful concoctions exhibit humor and pathos, as they ooze, drip and float, seemingly a nod to Morris Louis, an artist who is a professed inspiration for Djurberg. Long pink tongues occasionally lick the ice creams naughtily, hands reach in with knives to cut the ice cream, and there is a psychedelic play of shape and color, as the ice creams dance and drop from an imaginary sky, pulsing all the while to Hans Berg's hypnotic music. Licking, scooping and cutting are consistent themes in Nathalie's work, as seen in films such as Tiger Licking Girl's Butt, 2004, is beautifully exploited by the inherent properties of Nathalie's malleable and child-like medium of clay plasticine. The ice creams in Things Cut in Half and Split in Two, 2013, are in essence stand-ins for human flesh. Nathalie reminds us of the psychosexual underpinnings and fantasies that are an inescapable part of our being, and the associations we bring even to something as seemingly banal and innocuous as ice cream. Once again, through her profound artworks, Djurberg forces us to re-consider the lens with which we see the world and ourselves.
Nathalie Djurberg (born in Lysekil, Sweden, in 1978) received her MFA from Malmo Art Academy in 2002, and since that time she has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions around the world. Most notably, in 2009 she presented her installation The Experiment in the exhibition "Making Worlds" at the 53rd Venice Biennale, for which she was awarded the prestigious Silver Lion for Promising Young Artist. In 2012, Djurberg and Berg presented "The Parade," a major installation for the New Museum's Studio 231 series, and in 2008, Djurberg participated in "After Nature," curated by Massimiliano Gioni. She currently lives and works in Berlin with Hans Berg.
Hans Berg (born in Rattvik, Sweden, in 1978) is a Berlin-based electronic music producer and self-taught musician. He began playing the drums in punk and rock bands at the age of fourteen. By fifteen, Berg started creating electronic music - which he has made ever since - when he purchased his first synthesizer and sampler. Berg and Djurberg met in Berlin in 2004. Since then, he has composed the music for all of her films and installations.