Nathalie Djurberg
Walker Art Center
725 Vineland Place
September 8–December 31, 2011
New Museum
235 Bowery
May 11–July 8, 2012
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street
October 16, 2012–January 27, 2013
Curated by Eric Crosby and Dean Otto
In Nathalie Djurberg’s frenzied stop-motion animations, even innocuous actions—a kiss, a lick—quickly turn violent. The crude, childlike appearance of the Swedish artist’s handmade figures and environments renders her work all the more sinister and unsettling. For “The Parade,” her largest exhibition in an American museum to date, Djurberg explores the social psychology of birds—their mating rituals, flocking patterns, and territorial displays—with eighty-five freestanding mixed-media sculptures and five films (all of which are synced to one incongruously chipper score by Hans Berg). A catalogue with essays by the two curators will supplement Djurberg’s all-new body of work. Taking these strange winged creatures as a point of departure, the artist will undoubtedly present us with a terrifying and exhilarating universe of aviary perversions.