NANNA HELLBERG
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DEATHCOCK
Performance:
ca 15 min (2009)
Deathcock is a performance that reenacts Ana Mendietas work Death
of a Chicken from 1972 where she held a beheaded chicken by the legs until
it eventually stopped moving. The title Deathcock is taken from an Ex
of the artist that used it as an alias on Internet where he picked up
women in random order. The aim of the work is to play with the duality
of the word “cock”. The woman in the performance therefore
holds a beheaded cock in her hands until it eventually stops moving.
LIMITATIONS
Video: color, sound, 2 min loop (2009)
Limitations is a video with sound that visualizes a woman caged up together
with wild wolves. It is a moment connected with self-induced danger but
there are also elements of devotion and intimacy in the way they approach
one another. The theme deal with the topic of vulnerability in relation
to emotional or physical attraction but also with the claustrophobic feeling
of being trapped in a delimited situation.
SUPERSTITION
Mixed media installation (2009)
Superstition is a site-specific installation made for the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Roskilde, Denmark. It consists of a concrete well installed outside
in the museum garden and a silent projection located inside the museum
building. Inside the well there is a placed subtle sound that resembles
the sound of church bells echoing from far down. In the round video projection
we follow the slow movements of a woman filmed from above in water. There
is a reference to female suicide with a body that keeps on drifting but
the aim of the work is to provide a hint of that mystical atmosphere that
makes people imagine things.
CARELESS LOVE
Performance: ca 40 min (2008)
Careless Love is a series of three performances that deal with the topic
of relational disputes. They are all more or less reenactments of earlier
performances relating to themes such as exploring physical and emotional
boundaries. Careless Love is an attempt to visualize emotional pain but
the theme of the work is also dealing with questions of mortality in relation
to the absence of love.
MEDITATIONS
Video: color, sound, 33 sek loop (2008)
Meditations is based on an interest to investigate the environment and
psychology of hunting grounds. It is a short video loop that stages a
hunting scene where we view a person who moves in a delimited area. Her
actions are constantly repeated along with a processed sound. Thematically
these actions represent a repeated act of failure referring to the act
of killing. The aim was to focus on psychological phenomena such as repeated
obsession acts but there is also a reference to existential questions
on life and death.
BRIGHT LIGHT
Photography and sound: lambda prints mounted on aluminum, 50 x 37 cm,
27 sek audio loop (2007)
Bright Light consists of a short sound on loop together with 20 photographs.
These were all taken with an analogue camera using expired black and white
film. The motive for all pictures on the roll was a sunless morning sky.
On the developed film organic-like shapes and patterns appeared that at
the same time resembled cloud formations. The sound for Bright Light is
a reproduction of a song played on the stereo during the time when the
photographs were taken.
WILD BIRDS
Video installation and performance: color, sound, ca 15 min (2007)
Wild Birds is an installation with two video backdrops and a performance.
A woman plays feed back noise from her guitar amp while feathers from
her back are falling. The sound resembles the primal scream of birds.
BLISSED
Video: 2-channels, b/w, sound, 2min (2007)
The two-channel video Blissed documents a local pet-cemetery in Stockholm.
In one channel the camera lens slowly captures fragments of the pet cemetery
that is partly covered with snow. The sound is connected to this channel
and consists of time-stretched footsteps creating a crunchy sound as if
walking on something breakable. The other channel presents a staged intimate
scene where a woman slowly caresses a dog in a narrative that deal with
the topic of devotion. The contrast in the black and white footage is
central with the intention to create a timeless and fragile document.
GATHERING
Video installation: 3-channels, color, sound, 7 min loop (2006)
Gathering is an installation based on various video documentations of
a former chapel in Amsterdam. The idea of the work was to capture the
religious undertone that was still present in the building. In order to
document different layers of space a receiver that detects electro-magnetic
fields was used and by connecting it to a camera the activity could be
recorded. Captured in these recordings was an audiovisual chaos where
a selection of shapes and patterns appeared in random order. The material
was then edited together with detailed footage and processed field recordings
from the chapel. It is presented as a three-channel installation consisting
of three back projection screens with a directed sound source behind each
one. Thematically there is a parallel to religious visions, as well as
other forms of faith and belief in paranormal activity, but the emphasis
is on the poetic ambiguity in the material of the visual noise.
BUCKET
Video and text: 2-channels, b/w, no sound, 2 min (2006)
Bucket is a two-channel video with a man who is painting the ceiling of
a chapel at night. In one channel we follow the ritualized motions of
his body. The other channel presents a text about a man who entered his
own painting and disappeared.
GRAYSCALE
Video installation: 3-channels, color, sound, 7.35 min (2005)
Grayscale is the result of an experiment with a gray test image shown
on a TV-screen. It went through a process of disintegration and transformation
when the screen was systematically filmed in rounds with a camera. The
information of the test image gradually dissolved and new colors and patterns
appeared. Grayscale consists of collected material from this process that
is referring to the psychological grayscale in between extremes.