LOS ANGELES — Dark whimsy and fecundity abound among the artworks of Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg’s exhibition A Pancake Moon, currently on view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery — first in the smattering of resin flower pieces and two anthropomorphic egg sculptures, “Poached Egg on Chair” and “Soft Boiled Egg on Chair,” that populate the first two gallery spaces, and then in the foreboding musical compositions of Hans Berg, a musician as well as half of this artistic duo, that emanate from the doors of the third space, home to the exhibition’s titular collection of artworks, A Pancake Moon (all 2022).

Surreal and psychologically compelling, the sculptures of A Pancake Moon are best understood by watching the artists’ new stop-motion animation of the same name. In this video, Djurberg and Berg trace the life cycle of a beautiful young egg, starting with her childlike appreciation of herself, as she admires and receives pleasure from her own existence alone in the woods, rubbing her body, dancing, and speaking words of praise to herself. A parallel is drawn between the egg and feminine sexuality when two male characters, a fox and a bear, come into the scene with a voracious desire to consume the egg before she is ready or willing to participate. Consent or her relative immaturity do not seem to be at the forefront of these creatures’ minds. To escape them, she transforms into a moon, although whether this was a conscious choice or her body’s defense system kicking in remains ambiguous.

Η συνέχεια εδώ.