Curiouser and Curiouser! Following the White Rabbit into the Absurd and Bawdy World of Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg

Installation view from How to Slay a Demon, 2019
"Using sculpture, stop-motion film, sound, and immersive installation, the artists construct narratives that speak to emotional tension, confliction, sexual impulse, and violence." Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

    One Last Trip to The Underworld was an exhibition on view at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City from November 1, 2019, through December 20, 2019.  Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg's collaborative works featured four full films of stop motion animation; Damaged Goods, How to Slay a Demon, This is Heaven, and One Last Trip to the Underworld. Djurberg and Berg's ability to conjure a unique form like Lewis Carroll's Alice and Wonderland and blend content with dark humor seen in Dr. Suess synchronizes with my psyche.

  The two met in Berlin, Germany but are both Swedish-born, pulling on the artistic form of Swedish folklore where one goes back to nature or allegorical animals representing human characteristics.  Djurberg states, "The art is not meant for children" by using adult content in her storytelling.  In the video, Djurberg, the animator, and Berg, the music composer, take us through the emotional process of art-making.   Here the 5:47 minute video feature the artists sharing their feelings of Shame, Desire, Happiness, and Despair- inviting us to consider our own fears and fantasies.  https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/nathalie-djurberg-hans-berg-share-their-feelings-short/

Damaged Goods, 2019

Shame is a predominant feeling of Djurberg throughout the creative process; she refers to an idea and the solidity of the work in this phase. Still, as the art evolves, the picture becomes imperfect, moving further away from her initial stream of thought.  Looking for answers is not what she seeks; instead, it's the lessons learned from her emotions.  Djurberg doesn't care for a narrative; there are no written ideas, Berg the composer, mentions the flow of their creative process where they let things pop up and "Catch the right ideas."  

This is Heaven, 2019

How to Slay a Demon, 2019
Hans Berg's representation of desire is similar to the voice of addiction; wanting something, but you can't get it. In This is Heaven, his music choice pulls from the emotional state of being a winner, similar to the training song in Rocky.   The character just deserves everything; Nathalie responds to his music, "It was great until disgusting...the only music I feel ashamed to hear." "Perfect!" Berg replies.  How to Slay a Demon evokes the sexual and carnal pleasures of the human experience.  The music is a temptress luring the viewer in.  Taboos reflect the fear of becoming "this" thing, where one is terrified to look and find out about self.  Truths are painful to release out loud, but perhaps liberation of thought can follow if we choose to do so.

One Last Trip to the Underworld, 2019
Happiness and Despair are dialectics through being relative to one another.  Hans Berg mentions the moment when an experience can free you or keep you in a space and never come out.  This concept is familiar to me personally; I can understand the feeling of being trapped in my own mind. A moment came when love for myself freed me of the enslavement—Djurberg reminiscences in the state of joy and how nothing feels like it.  But there is the pull of despair within a moment of joy, and this state of fear can last forever.  "A lie that tricks me every time.", Nathalie whimsically states.
The two artists are special to me by excavating deeper streams of thought as they turn to the psychological and corporeal effects that challenge the human psyche to new ways of being.