Wild Exaggeration

Nathalie Djurberg

Distorted Plasticine figures star in dark carnivalesque scenes in Nathalie Djurberg's short video works, reflecting a cruel, witty and humorous world view. These works, which Djurberg defines as "fairy tales gone mad," set an unremittingly critical mirror in front of human evil. The technique the artist uses to sculpt her figures is reminiscent of childish craft. The scenes, with their weird, surreal plots, are shot using stop-motion animation (claymation). The use of simple materials and the exposing of the creative process (with bare wires, captions scribbled with magic markers and even sometimes intentionally misspelled) highlight the disparity between content and means. Violence, perversion and horror are thus conveyed to the viewer in a naïve, fairy tale-like idiom - although Djurberg's do not promise a happy end. Most of the figures in her films are young women and girls, victims or aggressors, in situations of humiliation or torture - from petty fraud through sexual abuse to murder and mutilation. Thus, for instance, Madeleine the Brave (2006) - which is based on Ludwig Bemelmans's classic Madeleine character - features a bear apprehending a girl and making her his pet. In other films, human cruelty is shown in bored, aristocratic circles, and this is further pronounced through the incorporation of black figures - implying a critique of both the Western system of social classes and Western conceptions of so-called "primitive" cultures. Each of the fantasies featured in Djurberg's work might act as a metaphor of human nature, even the way she handles the soft, malleable material, which can be seen as echoing man's coarse handling of the world itself.

Born in Lysekil, Sweden, 1978; lives and works in Berlin