Nathalie Djurberg at Zach Feuer Gallery

Nathalie Djurberg, I found myself alone [installation view], 2008, mixed media.

A black, clay ballerina dances around a luxurious dessert tray, smearing chocolate on the ornate, faux-china. Recorded in jerky, stop-motion animation, her dance feels fragile, on the verge of collapsing, which it does, in a horror that’s worth not spoiling here. Feuer’s gallery walls have been defaced with chocolate, while the pristine, plasticine Versailles stage set is on display, safely enclosed within Plexiglas: nearly-edible non-sites for the decadent trauma on display in I found myself alone. Any sense of meaning is opaque here; the unrepentant joy in destruction is not.

At Zach Feuer through January 24, 2009.