Nina Beier points to unsettling aspects of everyday objects and habits
When society’s appreciation for an object rises or falls, the artist Nina Beier gets interested. It might be a hand-rolled cigar or a vintage sink, its colour once given an imperialist name, such as “Indian ivory” or “Bali brown.” Her sculptures juxtapose objects and materials. In their new contexts they again take on new meanings, for example, in Plug (2018) a thick cigar protrudes out of the drain hole beneath a pastel-toned sink.
Nina Beier (b. 1975, Denmark) turns the spotlight onto the biographies and historical baggage that many everyday items carry with them. Her sculptures are often based on existing objects that she finds in online marketplaces and second-hand shops—everywhere that once-produced, bought, used, and rejected goods accumulate.
Recurrent themes in the works in the “Parts” exhibition include gendered roles and humankind’s relationship with more-than-human species. In the pieces on display at Kiasma, Beier has used, for instance, mechanical bulls and breast milk substitute (Beast, 2018), wigs made of real hair and remote-controlled cars (Auto, 2017), massage chairs and precious metals recovered from electronic waste (Manual Therapy, 2016),as well as fertilised soil and the seeds of an endangered palm tree from the Seychelles (Female Nude, 2015)—once valuable commodities that resemble the female groin. In her sculptures, she uses objects as mirrors that reflect the world around them, its power structures, flows of materials and money, questions of authenticity, and the endless meanings associated with merchandise.
Besides sculptures, Beier has created many performances during her career. One of these, Drama, will be staged at Kiasma. In it, actors are crying into a drink in the exhibition space. The performance can be seen on Fridays and Saturdays, details of times will be posted on the museum’s website.
At the end of May, the exhibition will extend outside the museum’s premises with Beier’s fountain sculpture Women & Children (2022) displayed in front of Kiasma. It has now been acquired for the Finnish National Gallery’s collections, with the support of the New Carlsberg Foundation, and will remain on permanent display in the pool on the museum’s café terrace.
at Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki
until September 8, 2024