‘European interiors’, Nina Beier

Leaving it to the last minute I went along to Spike Island to see this show on its last day. ‘European Interiors’ filled the gallery space in Bristol’s Spike Island with familiar domestic objects, dynamic mechanical machines & mounds of natural material.

With many domestically identifiable objects in the space one immediately starts to think about the human body, how we live in spaces & the way we use things. ‘Baby’ the waterbed mattress wall hangings are filed with water & leaves sagging the weight to the ground, this first catches the eye as a human like form. Hanging like a beer belly or post pregnant tummy they stretch under the weight of the water. The generic “skin tone” colour which is like the poor effort to replicate skin colour for dolls or tights. It brings this work to a semi human level. All the while in this space i find my self thinking about how tacky a waterbed is & maybe that a baby was conceived on one or a parent lays about drinking beer on one. It has a hint of sad life to it but also humour as it reminds you that water beds were/are a ‘thing’. The position of the water fill cap resembles a belly button, right at the front of the weight of the belly. It’s kind of a joke bed, not being totally practical & famously uncomfortable.

Human connections continue in the next room which is filled with ceramic sinks of various colours, proportions & placements in the space. All of the plug holes are stuffed with hand rolled cigars. Straight away I thought of hair that gets clumped in sinks & the thought of seeing in in the pipe blocking the water. It is an uneasy feeling of blockage. A cigar stuffed into an orifice. Once again the colours have reference to attempts to skin tone but in a 70’s bathroom style. Bulges, protrusions & holes make you think of body parts. Tummies, nipples, eyes, breasts, cocks, mouths, pairs of bodies. Also the thought that sinks often have a mirror in front of them makes you think of your own body when standing by one of these sinks. A sink on the floor makes me wonder what body part I’d see if the mirror was there. Other sinks are on the wall & placed too high to ever use, making you feel like a child. The underneath exposed with a giant cigar clogging the hole. This arrangement not letting the vessel empty or allowing the human to breath.

One interesting work that has an uneasy feeling is ‘Ruin’. Comprised of bars of soap containing bugs, arranged on the gallery floor. The generic soap smell is in this space not smelling of anything interesting. A bland smell coming from a bland bar. It’s utterly mundane. It makes me think of animal fat & palm oil, associations I have with mass produced generic soap & as mentioned, bug parts. This soap feels hotel grade, low quality & is reflective of this by being on the floor. The name ‘Ruin’ not something you’d necessarily associate with a bar that would clean you. Bug parts also not suggesting cleanliness. Soap not being a very apt surface to walk on would make for a slippery surfaces laced with treachery. At a certain angle, (shown above) this work is half in the shadow of the darker space with the corresponding part in the roof lit gallery. Well curated or coincidental? This work travels through the gallery partition taking no notice of the wall. Carrying through the space regardless. More than anything for me, this work is well shown & the use of space was worth thinking about. The intrusion across the floor carries the same values as a sculpture being in the space. But this is only at floor level rather than in the middle volume of the gallery. In addition the soap bars resemble a traditional & beautiful flooring pattern, yet we know we shouldn’t stand on it. The unwritten gallery etiquette paired with common sense tell us this.

Further along the corridor is a work called ‘Mars’. In the long space, alone, placed in the middle of the walk way this work is comprised of a few large sections of asphalt seemly taken right from the street. Crudely pulled from the ground with one side perfectly cut with a smooth edge exposing the aggregate in the lump. This is another floor surface in this exhibition. A few inches thick this work exposes what is within the surface that makes up a vast part of our built environment. The cross section is really beautiful. Sliced stones with exposed veins. Soft stone colours not unlike the pallet of sinks in the next room & a slick black layer holding all of this down. On top of the block of rocks & bitumen sit popular chocolate & caramel confections which this work seemly takes it name from. Cut perfectly smooth like the asphalt the two smooth edges line up.

Noted by my friend, the chocolate bars are another item, similar to the cigars, that are stuffed into the mouth. They both have a relationship to hands bringing something to face. Both cigars & chocolate bars representing something luxurious & not necessarily good for human health. ‘Mars’ also suggesting an alien planet, a rock, a new surface to inhabit, an escape from reality perhaps?

This work is difficult to read in the space considering what came before. Domestic settings with familiar objects followed then by a human made surface taken from the outside & seen in a fragment with suggestions of science fiction or space exploration & human diets. Leading to the next space it perhaps links the gap to the natural materials that come.

The final space at Spike Island contains work referencing more natural, environmental matters. Seeds from an endangered palm sit on top of mounds of fertilized soil surrounding mechanical bulls with large bottles of powdered milk formula on their backs buck & spin in the space. The seeds raising the issue of an endangered plant that seems not to grow even in this fertilized soil, raised up as if being offered to the gods. The volcanic soil shape associated with highly fertile ground not offering much life to the largest seeds on earth. Named ‘Female Nude’, the seeds display bodily forms. Buttocks, vaginas or cleavage. They are also telling us about fertility, eggs or wombs. Several of these mound forms are in this space.

Meanwhile in the corner a constant intrusion of bucking rodeo Bulls relentlessly spin & fight for attention, never letting the space rest. This otherwise barren, un-growing space reminds us of human interference in nature. Baby formula on the backs of mechanical bulls reminds me that dairy Cows are largely artificially inseminated in an intrusive effort to keep the poor animal producing milk for human consumption. Naturally this task would be performed by a Bull, milk then being produced to nourish their own young. Here in this gallery the bull has been replaced by a machine normally used for human entertainment or a show of skill elevating mans ego over another. The baby formula brings the female element that once again is synthetic & removed from its natural state. Prepared for human consumption where this milk really its not needed. After all human females produce their own milk. This work seems to reinforce my own morals as a vegan by showing the un-natural & machine like practice of taking a mother’s milk that is produced for her own young. Industrial mechanisms have replaced natural behaviour in animals for human gain. The Bulls & the seeds expose a failure where humans have intervened. Although I’m not sure this work was purposely made to highlight human failure in farming practice, for me it does just that.

Nearby on one of the walls in this space are more works that add comment to this space. Framed human hair wigs line the wall reminding us of vanity & popular styles.

Placed at head height these styled wigs are frozen within the frames. This work once again suggest human dominance over nature, this time over our own nature but with highly manufactured styles & dated trends. These works also seem to be referencing the taking of power from women, as human hair wigs are often associated with the taking of hair from females in poorer countries. Taking not only their hair but their identity & freedom. Most likely taken for fashion & vanity for women in another ‘more developed’ society.

Aside of the human rights issue this work adds humour to the space. After all these are framed pre-styled wigs. It is kind of bizarre & kind of funny.

This whole show was well put together with Nina Beier bringing some interesting work with socially engaging themes. Although hitting on some serious topics such as patriarchy, animal exploitation, the object & domesticity there is a thread of humour & surrealism in this show which I really enjoyed.