Nina Beier - Under the Influence London Wednesday, December 12, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Croy Nielsen, Berlin
    Private Collection, Europe

  • Catalogue Essay

    Nina Beier started her career performing with the Danish artist Marie Lund. Her more recent works, such as Tragedy (2011), presented at the Unlimited sector of Art Basel 43, and The Complete Works (2012), which appeared as part of the series Performance Year Zero at The Tanks, Tate Modern, serve as an important conduit to her latest works in the Portrait Mode Series and in her vitrine Facing Figure. Tragedy and The Complete Works actively involve voluntary subjects to form collaborative and
    unexpected portraits.

    Portrait Mode (2011) from the Portrait Mode Series is a poetic patchwork of found printed garments. The sober cartographic delineation of space is counteracted by the use of hypnotic dazzling animal print. Part of the character of the piece derives from the evocative nature of familiar commercial prints assembled in this almost theatrical collage. This striking work presents a kaleidoscopic world of pattern and texture. From a distance the distinctive pattern of each section disintegrates, and the colours take on a more sculptural effect. Are we looking at a whole landscape, or an enlarged fragment of something greater? In this illusion, the work has both a garish artificiality and a subtle naturalness. The patchwork patterning of the work comprises man-made materials, yet the shapes suggest a more natural representation of landscape, in much the same way as bark on a tree is pieced together by the eye and brain in a kind of gestalt.

4

Potrait Mode

2011
found garments in white frame
148 x 120 x 6 cm (58 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 2 3/8 in)

Estimate
£15,000 - 20,000 

Sold for £20,000

Under the Influence

13 December 2012
London