In her second solo exhibition at Zach Feur Gallery, Swedish born artist Nathalie Djurberg presents a new film and sculpture much tamer than her previous experimental animations, but one that still reflects a troubled, disturbed element of the human psyche. In a plasticine set fashioned like a Rococo version of a Wayne Thiebaud painting come to life, a black licorice ballerina pirouettes through a tea party setting complete with sweet confections, fluffy cream puffs, and other sugary treats. Its title, I Found Myself Alone, hints to the viewer that this Dance of the Sugar Plum will turn sour, and in Djurberg’s Land of Sweets, the dream turns nightmare.

As the gangly young ballerina continues to maneuver through the tabletop tea party, she increasingly begins to wreak havoc, stomping the plate of cookies into a gooey mess, smearing chocolate onto vases, spilling tea, and making parlous staircases to nowhere out of sugar cubes. The sugar and spice and everything nice idyll of girlhood crumbles in on itself as the ballerina meets her demise and drowns in candle wax dripping profusely from a candelabrum.

In an economic time like this when overindulgence and decadence are a dream of the past and frugality is necessary, I see a parallel metaphor in Djurberg’s I Found Myself Alone that warns of the sins of gluttony. The moral of the story, perhaps, is that excess kills.

Also on view, in a room smeared with smudgy chocolate-like paint, is the meticulously crafted tea set complete with all the sugary pastries and cookies intact. Enclosed in a beautiful vitrine, the intricate faux china can blend in with the best of the Met’s decorative arts wing, a testament to Nathalie Djurberg’s skill as both an animator and sculptor.