'Nina Beier's work is as unstable as a keg of dynamite, if a whole lot quieter. The Danish artist's sparse, pared-down offerings have included fading photographs, a wall painting that was redone daily and a sculpture recreated via a game of Chinese whispers. Her Dust Painting is literally a pile of dust-coloured pigment, which gets traipsed all over the gallery on the soles of people's shoes. As unassuming as it first appears, her art is an elusive, restless thing, with scant regard for the beautiful picture frames that often attempt to contain it.'-- The Guardian
'I believe my father invented Google Maps. Or at least a map of what could have eventually become Google Maps. He never fully realized this project, though. The roads of his psyche, to use a fitting metaphor, were perhaps not made for opposing traffic. People say that every map is a portrait of its maker, a picture of his knowledge, perspective, and interpretation. One thing is certain: My father loves Google Maps.
'The philosopher Alfred Korzybski famously stated that “the map is not the territory,” supposedly meaning that one should not confuse the representation of something with the actual thing. But there is a lot to be said for confusion. These are confused works, pictures that are both map and territory. What is a poster for an exhibition of posters, or what should we call a representation of dust made of dust-colored pigment dispersed over a room? Or a work that frames the clothes the framer was wearing when he made the frames? After all, isn’t the best way to describe a story to tell one?
'I have repeatedly come across a Lewis Carroll story about a country that, after several attempts at making an accurate map, makes a map the size of the country itself. But when using it, the citizens run into a number of problems and, following complaints from the farmers who argue that using the map would harm crops, they decide to use the country itself as its own map, a solution they conclude is nearly as good. Here, the represented almost succeeds in becoming its own image, like the story, as I just told it, is almost the same as it was the first time around.
'When one attempts to light a sculpture fully, its shadows unfold on the floor around it. The sculpture practically appears overshadowed by the repeated figures. But if one would present the shadows as the work of art on display, would we see the sculpture as the portrayed?
'I have found pictures of body parts belonging to giant statues. These statues are constructed in fragments and will inevitably end in fragments again. They are a puzzle and we know the pieces; even when looking at the full figure, its own reality shines through. As an image torn to pieces and reassembled, it displays the scars of its own history while competing with the story it depicts.
'The pictures argue within and among themselves, as their surfaces struggle with their content for domination. When a published representation of a work of art is framed and presented as a work again, the weight of the frame might initially outshine its content, which again, if the reflective UV filter makes it survive long enough, might gain enough importance to be appreciated on its own terms and perhaps even be freed from its frame again.
'The viewer will see her own image mixed in with this story, and any future photographic documentation is likely to include the reflection of its maker. Appositionally, a framed poster that has been sandblasted, obscuring the image and exposing the frame, has become a thing in itself, no longer a representation, and will never again reflect anything.'-- Nina Beier
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Further
Nina Beier @ Laura Bartlett Gallery
Nina Beier @ Standard (Oslo)
Nina Beier @ Metro Pictures
'Of any artist working today, 35-year-old hyper-mixed-media artist Nina Beier ...'
'Artist of the week 180: Nina Beier'
'FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS'
'25 artists to watch: Nina Beier
'Nina Beier’s “Office Nature Nobody Pattern”'
Book: Nina Beier & Marie Lund 'The Object Lessons'
'Johnson Tiles lends its expertise to artist Nina Beier'
'NINA BEIER: VALUABLES'
'ALL THE BEST: NINA BEIER E MARIE LUND'
'The Pedestal Problem'
Nina Beier reviewed @ Frieze Magazine
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Extras
Nina Beier exhibition @ Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Nina Beier with Marie Lund 'Hide behind the trees' (2006)
NINA BEIER, PERFORMER PERFORMING PERFORMANCE (2009/2010)
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Interview
Let’s start with the basics—your work is so materially diverse. If someone asks you what you make, how do you answer?
Nina Beier: [laughing] Only in America do I get this question! I usually say that my work is conceptually based and takes any form except painting…but I guess that’s not even true anymore. I am wary of self-mediation though, because conceptually conceived work is already far too self-conscious. The art needs to work as a project: to read, to misinterpret, to reinterpret, that’s how you get closer to the idea of a show.
You've made some projects that have the possibility of being unfinished forever. How do you resolve to stay unresolved?
NB: My process is coming from a direct frustration—as artists we want to explore something that is alive, but normally in the art system the work is supposed to have a final destination, and it freezes. On the issue of staying unresolved, I guess I am not the first artist to struggle with fitting a living and changing practice into a framework that demands final answers.
So what is your process?
NB: All the things that are completely unbearable about the system, that’s what I want to work with. The artwork is autonomous despite the attempt to claim its rights. When I look at my existing work it is not uncommon that something has changed since it was made; it could be its context, itself or even me. I respect the authority of the [extant] work, but I like to believe that mine trumps it. I should have the freedom to change it. For example, I’ll change a title if I don’t think it’s fitting anymore.
You’ve been quoted as having read the theories of Walter Benjamin and Roger Caillois. Do you think of your work as theory-driven?
NB: I read, but not conscientiously, I have to admit. I use writing for inspiration and I rudely mix and match to make it fit my current thinking. But I would hate to think that my work would be an illustration of any theory.
Do you feel you are playing a game with the audience?
NB: No, a game would imply that I have a master perspective and I don’t want to claim that. My work tends to be built on some more or less logical premise, but it would be really sad if it ended there. I try to start something and there is nothing better than when it is taken on the route of over-interpretation, an attack of the mind, like the incredible places that these guys’ minds can go. It’s what any work of art would wish for.
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Show
On the Uses and Disadvantages of Wet Paint (2010)
Nina Beier with Marie Lund
History Makes a Young Man Old, 2008/2010
A crystal ball rolled on the ground from the place where it was purchased to its final destination
Tragedy (2012)
Trained dog, Persian rug
Sweat No Sweat No Sweat No Sweat No Sweat (2013)
Shelving for Unlocked Matter and Open Problems (2010)
Wallet (2014)
turtle shell, woman/man and kid cotton underwear
Closing Argument (2010)
Posters, frames, Variable dimension
Nina Beier with Marie Lund
The Collection (2008)
The Blues (2012)
Sun-faded posters, window glass, frames
Nina Beier with Marie Lund
I Wrote this Song for You (2008)
8 vintage speakers, amplifiers, soundfile, computer
Foxtail Keychains, Choker Chain Necklaces, Teaspoons, Chain Print Fabric (2013)
Untitled (2013)
Woman's wig, Persian rug, sheet of glass
Flowage (2013)
Untitled (2014)
Untitled (2014)
Tunnel Taken Apart (2010)
The Pockets (2012)
Greens ($50 rubles) (2014)
Palm and printed towel pressed by glass, on foam on MDF
Nina Beier with Marie Lund
New Novels, New Men (Jealousy, Jalousi, La Celosia, La Gelosia, Die Jalousie oder Die Eifersucht) (2009)
Liquid Assets (2013)
plastic, 3D modeling
Nina Beier with Marie Lund
The House and the Backdoor (2007)
*
p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Oh, that's too bad. About the PTA 'Inherent Vice' film. I was curious. I've found most of PTA's films to be quite strong. ** Tosh Berman. Hi. 'Against the Day' is my fave Pynchon, I think. I do really like 'Mason & Dixon' too. Hm, genius. How do you define that, if you don't mind saying? Like what artists do you believe possess it, and how is it apparent. I think for me 'genius' is maybe an extreme form of great, and I feel it about work instinctually, and it usually comes to mind when something confuses me and seems transcendent at the same time or something. ** James, Hi. I'm okay. The spooky thing isn't health related, it's circumstances-related. And I haven't gotten my answer about it yet due to me chickening out yesterday, but I will today. But I'm whole and fine, thanks. ** Sypha, Hi. Very interesting: your thoughts on horror and its ... cooptation? I don't mind pessimism in writing except when the writer is dogmatic about it and using his fiction to make some nihilist point, statement. But then again I don't really like writing that does that whatever the writer's philosophical bent. I guess the writing that interests me has the writer's viewpoint as an ingredient but exists in a place beyond his or her opinions. Like a runaway train or something that the writer trusts and is trying to control as much as possible, and to whose lack of a predetermined destination orclear-set purpose he or she is forced to act as a technician. Technical work as a form of of surrender or something. I don't know. I find outrage-chasing on FB incredibly tiresome. I like the idea of forming communities on there and stuff, but not communities based people on trying to trigger each other's emotionalism about celebrities' behavior such that you get these petty, doomsaying two-or-three-daylong group diatribes and pissy arguments about whatever happens to be front page news on TMZ and Gawker, which seems like 80% of what's happening on my particular feed there in the past months. ** Kier, Hi, K! I wish I could send you a buche without you ending up receiving a moulded pile of mush. My scare is circumstantial, like I said to James. It's scary, but it's not life threatening or anything, and I still haven't found out my fate in that regard, but I kind of need to today. I'll await my glimpse of Lucifer, yay! Horses are intense. They kind of freak me out. I got bucked off every horse I tried to ride when I was a kid, so I think I have a lingering neurosis about them. I like and admire them, though. That Xmas decoration you made sounds most deserving of the holiday. I'm anxiously awaiting the day when Paris's Xmas stuff will go up and will be made available in stores. I don't when that is. I think maybe in a week? Oh, you're gone, so I don't know if you're seeing this, or, rather, when you're seeing this, but I hope your trip goes really, really well, if you don't get to check in from there. My yesterday wasn't so interesting. I'm really having to buckle down on finishing the new Gisele theater piece, and that's basically what I did all day. Oh, I don't want to say too much about this yet, but I'm going to be putting out a book soon, an eBook, a novel but not in the traditional novel form, and it'll be free, and an awesome place wants to publish it, and I was working on the early stages of that with them yesterday, and that was exciting. More details on that soon. And, yeah, I really was just home working on stuff all of yesterday, and it went well, so that's good, but it wasn't a very colorful, newsy day to report on. So, I'll be very interested to hear how things are going up there where you are, either in a daily form or in post-trip wrap-up form. Have fun, pal! ** Heliotrope, Mark! I did kind of wonder bordering on suspect that Mr. Rhodes might lead to your entering this humble abode. Did I turn you on to 'Mirror'? Maybe, it's possible. Wow, Grin, wow. I haven't listened to Grin in a billion years. That's an idea. I did see that there was a box-set of Nils Lofgren's stuff put out not so long ago. 'Beggar's Day!' Did you see the Rhodes doc film? I continue to miss you too! I'm hoping/planning to finally get to LA after the first of the year sometime. Iceland was insane. Broken ribs suck. No news there on either front. I love you too, man, and, yeah, you being around would be sweetness! ** Keaton, Hey. Interesting thoughts there on the libido and all that, cool, thank you. I'm more woken up now. Bang. I was never baptized either. High or low five! Sober, huh, cool. I'm kind of almost totally sober, as I think you know. I like it. It's kind of awesome. New Keaton construction! It's about time! Everyone, possibly in honor of the upcoming American holiday Thanksgiving, Keaton has made one of his blog-based masterstrokes, and that's your cue to click your way into a thing called 'Thanksgiven' and/or '::Lord Satan, we give thanks..."'. Do. ** Cal Graves, Hi there, Cal. Good to see you, man. Trip was fucking unbelievable. Too unbelievable to be cozied up to wordage, basically. But go to Iceland if/when you can. Seriously. We got to Reykjavik, and, the day after we got there, the Airwaves Festival, which you probably know is Iceland's biggest, best music festival, started, but it started on the day when we left town to drive around the country for 10 days, so I totally missed it. Didn't see any bands. Heard a ton of Icelandic contempo music while on the trip in, like, cafes and stuff, but it was all the kind of soft melodic, spaced-out kind, like lower IQ Sigur Ros basically. You're no traitor, perish the thought. That is a bizarre question. Okay, it's tricky because I'm a person who maybe remembers a dream I had, like, three times a year. The way I wake up seems to erase them or something. And when I do remember them, I'm always being chased by a murderer or falling to earth from a very high, fatal height. And I have this weird, vivid imagination, and when I do remember my dreams, they don't seem any more vivid or realistic than the fantasies I have while conscious. So I don't know what I would dream in that pressured circumstance, hm. Really, I'm flummoxed. I'll have to think about it. That's not a fun answer, I'm sorry. Try me again? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Thanks. Me too. I think I have to find out today. Almond tours a lot? He never plays in Paris. I wonder why. It would be easy for him to do presumably, and I'm sure he has a healthy French following. ** Steevee, According to Amazon, a couple of his albums are in-print in download and vinyl forms only. And, otherwise, you can buy imports, often from Japan. Thanks about the scare. Hopefully I'll find out that I was scared for nothing. ** Etc etc etc, Hi, Casey. Thanks, man. I should hopefully be A-okay. Rhodes has a Nilsson-like thing in a strange way. I did see the Godard, and I loved it a lot. It's probably my favorite film I've seen this year, and it's definitely the film that has excited me the most re: thinking about art-making, new ideas. I thought it was really, really great! Good day to ya, bud. ** Misanthrope, Hi. I don't have any God-promoting FB friends, which I guess makes sense. Just a lot of outrage addicts. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's Kardashian's butt or Bill Cosby's alleged rapes or Amanda Byrnes's latest tweet or Daniel Hander's racist joke. The outrage is the same whatever the target. Man, the image of LPS's mom teaching him at home just seems absurd and cruel, I'm sorry. Well, semi-sorry, if that. A fucked up mess in-fucking-deed! ** Okay. I like Nina Beier's work, and so I have given her a show in my gallery. See what you think. See you tomorrow.