In her homeland, a Björk summer is in bloom.

The National Gallery of Iceland is hosting two exhibitions celebrating the multi-faceted craft of the singer, musician, artist, conceptualist and fashion-forward being from another dimension.

‘Metamorphlings’ is a collection of masks created by James Merry, a Björk visual collaborator since 2009, many of them crafted for her tours and other projects. Echolalia presents three large-scale audiovisual installations. Two of those pieces, ‘Ancestress’ (a ‘lamentation… staged as a ritualistic procession of musicians andq dancers’) and nine-part choral work ‘Sorrowful Soil’, are elegies for her late mother, environmental activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir. They were originally conceptualised around Björk’s 2022 album Fossora but are here ‘reimagined on a theatrical scale within a museum context for the first time’. Alongside those is a new piece, ‘Nerve Bloom’, offering a glimpse into the 60-year-old’s upcoming 11th album, her first studio collection since Fossora.

‘Through Björk, we celebrate brave and forward-thinking art that has, over the years, influenced the global cultural scene,’ says Lára Sóley, artistic director & CEO of Reykjavík Arts Festival, with the two exhibitions at the National Gallery ‘fill[ing] the spaces with an integration of music, craft, performance, technology and visual art’.

Describing ‘Nerve Bloom’, Björk says: ‘I don’t think of me as a visual artist. Because my heart is music. Everything I do comes from a sonic point of view. This is something I have called ‘sonic symbolism’, sound made visual, a reverse synaesthesia. When you listen to a song for the first time, it is like swallowing a whale, you need to feel the whole musical sculpture in one go. The structure of a song has always been extremely important to me. What shape it is. This is part of the craft of being a singer-songwriter... We are tune sculptors.’

Then, on 12 August 2026, there’s Echolalia: the rave. Björk hosts and DJs at the one-day event, coinciding with a solar eclipse, at Víðistaðatún in Hafnarfjörður. With the bill also including performances from Arca, Sideproject and Ronja, the rave marks the 40th anniversary of Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), the Icelandic collective and label that helped launch Björk’s omnivorous creativity.

Here, National Gallery of Iceland chief curator Pari Stave and Merry – an Englishman resident full-time in Iceland for 11 years – explain Björk’s big-time artistic sensuality.

Wallpaper*: Góðan daginn, Pari. What does ‘echolalia’ mean?

Pari Stave: The word refers to the repeating of words or phrases. It was a name given as a kind of umbrella title for the many different installations of Björk’s works.

W*: What was the idea behind Echolalia?

PS: Initially, Björk offered to show two video works, ‘Ancestress’ and ‘Sorrowful Soil’, that feature masks made by James. [Then] in time, she wanted to debut a new work, ‘Nerve Bloom’. As plans evolved further, she added videos of her live performances at Harpa from 2022 – collectively called Björk Orkestral – as well as single-channel videos made for certain songs – collectively called Avatars and Animations.

Taken together, the various installations and video works show the range of Björk’s creative collaboration with artists, some of whom she has worked with [during the course of] many years. It is important to note that she considers herself a singer-songwriter, but her reach extends into other media – often within the spirit of exploration and experimentation – by working with other artists.

W*: With ‘Ancestress’ and ‘Sorrowful Soil’, how are they ‘reimagined on a theatrical scale’?

PS: In the museum’s galleries, the scale of the video projections is cinematic, in the case of ‘Ancestress’, and the sound is optimised to the highest listening standards, so that in both installations the viewer has an immersive visual and aural experience of each work.

In ‘Sorrowful Soil’, each voice in a chorus of 30 choir members was individually recorded – in addition to Björk’s voice – and there is a speaker for each recording. So, as the viewers walk through the installation, they can hear each voice through a single, designated speaker, or hear the choir collectively, by standing in the centre of the room.

W*: What can you tell us about the piece based on ‘Nerve Bloom’, a new song from her next album?

PS: It’s an animation that combines analogue – traditional painting techniques – and technology: digital animation. Over a period of about seven months, Björk worked with the painter Natalia Kleszewska and the graphic artist Natalie Liu to create visual concept for the song. Paintings by Nathalia were animated by Natalie, using CGI technology.

The video components in the gallery include a layering of video, [such as] a large LED screen, a large-scale projection, and smaller projections showing details of the video on two-sided LED screens. The viewer is meant to view the installation from various angles but also align themselves with the centre of the video to observe the layering of images as they unfold.

W*:Takk fyrir for talking to me, James. What does your exhibition title ‘Metamorphlings’ signify?

James Merry: It’s combination of metamorphosis and -ling, a suffix often used for small creatures or beings. I've always tended to think of my masks as a family rather than isolated objects, connected through a kind of Linnaean evolutionary logic. Certain forms and motifs evolve from one mask to another, branching and mutating over time. So ‘Metamorphlings’ felt like an appropriate name, implying a small collection of shape-shifting creatures.

W*: You first met Björk in 2009 and began working with her as a research/personal assistant. What were some of your roles then?

JM: She had just finished the Volta tour when we first met and was in the early stages of developing what would later become Biophilia. So my role initially was as a research assistant, helping to gather and organise all the material she was absorbing that would eventually feed into that project.

W*: You started making masks for the Vulnicura tour. What were your brief/concept and materials for those masks?

JM: Björk’s visual direction centred on a sense of emotional emergency and the craft of embroidery as a form of repair, as well as a symbolic colour palette of healing lilac and urgent neon yellow. So I was really tapping into that and trying to create something that could function as a sort of protective veil – but at the same time feel romantic, organic and refined.

Many of those pieces were made while we were on tour. I would turn my hotel room into a studio and frantically try to create something new in the few days between each performance.

Putting together this retrospective made me fall in love with those pieces again. While I was restoring them, I could feel how they were made with such a burst of creative energy, so they got me feeling very nostalgic.

W*: Tell us, please, about the new mask you’ve created for ‘Metamorphlings’.

JM: The retrospective features over 80 of my masks, and I really wanted to include one new piece to debut at the opening. So I made a new work called Atenovx, as part of an ongoing series I am currently working on, inspired by Romano-Celtic archaeology of the later Iron Age. I had always been really fascinated by historical objects where timekeeping is embedded in the design – ways to track the cycles of the sun and the moon hammered into gold, and so on.

So I made this new piece to function both as a mask and as a working solar calendar, translating the cycle of the year onto the human face. Each month is marked with a gemstone, corresponding to the 12 months of our Julian calendar. The spring and autumn equinoxes align at the eyes, the winter solstice lies at the forehead and the summer solstice is represented by a pearl that rests in the mouth. A sequence of drilled holes marks each day of the year, through which a single pearl can be moved clockwise to track the passage of time.

W*: What is the magic of the mask?

JM: The ability to hide and reveal, both at the same time.

The National Gallery of Iceland, Fríkirkjuvegur 7, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland, until 20September. Tickets here. Rave information here

As part of the forum "Biodiversity: Which Culture for Which Future?", pioneering Icelandic artist and performer Björk has announced an immersive sound installation in collaboration with Aleph, techno-activist and co-editor-in-chief at Purple Magazine. Produced alongside the renowned IRCAM institute using AI software, Nature Manifesto interweaves the sounds and cries of endangered and extinct species with Björk’s own spoken words.

Hosted far from nature within the Centre Pompidou's iconic 'Chenille'—or Caterpillar—escalators, the installation seeks to build a sonic bridge between us and the vitality of these creatures and their environments. A mysterious sense of optimism and faith in nature’s resilience emerges from the poetic snippets and visuals shared by Björk, Aleph, and 3D animation artist Sam Balfua on social media. In the animation, a luminescent 3D figure moves dynamically through a forest, set against natural sonic textures and underscored by Björk’s voice:

"In pioneering sound strata of mutant peacocks, bees, and lemurs, biology will reassemble in new ways."

While the industrial setting, use of AI software, and 3D animations might suggest a disconnect from the natural world, Björk’s embrace of contemporary spaces and technologies illustrates once again how they can be repurposed to foster much-needed ecological awareness and a sense of interconnection.

The three-minute-and-forty-second immersive sound piece, created in partnership with D&B Audio and Southby Productions, will run from 20 November to 9 December, free of charge.

Björk’s ability to translate her musicality across a variety of artistic mediums remains indisputable, as evidenced by the newly announced 480-page picture book chronicling her celebrated Cornucopia Tour. Sophisticated set designs, bespoke instruments, ethereal projections, and intricate costumes come together to redefine what a theatrical music performance can be in today’s world.

Alongside director Tobias Gremmler’s artwork, performances by The Hamrahlíð Choir, and contributions from other musical and visual artists, Cornucopia: The Book immortalises the meticulous work behind the ambitious live production. Designed by M/M Paris and with photography by Santiago Felipe, the softcover book features flaps with sewn sections.

Björk’s interest in avant-garde practices, including virtual reality technologies and 360-degree audiovisual software, materializes into a fully immersive, emotionally rich live experience.

The Cornucopia stage strikes a balance between nature and technology. Wooden, metallic, and glass materials; mycelium-textured surfaces; floral-patterned textiles; and deep-sea colours and shapes blend seamlessly in a sophisticated set design. Custom-made instruments and sonic spaces push the boundaries of traditional performance. A magnetic harp, an aluphone, a circular flute, and a reverb chamber resembling a personal chapel, specially crafted with an audio architect, enhance both the acoustic and intimate dimensions of Björk’s live show.

Cornucopia: The Book invites readers into Björk’s singular world of sound and vision, sharing the journey of "a modern marionette who alchemically mutates, from puppet to puppet, from the injury of a heart wound to a fully healed state".

bjork.com

Spike Jonze met Björk at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles in 1995. In the months before, they had been discussing the concept for music videos from her upcoming album, Post, talking over the phone but never meeting in real life. Then Björk went to LA, and Jonze was asked to shoot her for Detour magazine. When he first saw her, she was wearing orange and drinking coffee – it was the calm before a casual but prolific day of shooting around the hotel.

The hundreds of photographs from that day have now been curated by friend and collaborator Humberto Leon (the designer and restaurateur, who recently designed a Tory Burch pop-up), for an exhibition – ‘The Day I Met Björk’, at Leon’s restaurant Arroz & Fun in collaboration with WeTransfer – that traces Björk throughout the day, from hotel room to garden to pool.

Spike Jonze and Humberto Leon on ‘The Day I Met Björk’

For Jonze, the photographs capture the moment right before Björk’s album blew up, changing everything for her. ‘It’s very easy to shoot photos of someone when they’re compelling, when they’re imaginative, when they lack any self-consciousness and when they’re as singular and original as her. Really, I almost can’t even take credit for any photos being good because they’re just... I think sometimes if you’re shooting photos of someone that doesn’t know how to be in front of the camera or play or just create something with you, then it’s hard. But this was just her. Just [point] the camera at her and she’s compelling.’

For Leon, favourite photos from the series include the singer going down the hallway, peeking her head back out of the doorway with her distinctive playfulness. ‘I feel like, looking at all the contact sheets, I live through the day with you and her because I saw the sequence of the day,’ he tells Jonze. ‘It’s almost like you were just like, “Throw that blanket over your body and jump on the bed.” And she was like, “Sure.” There’s one of her really close up with this blanket around her face and it’s shot so beautifully in black and white.’

WeTransfer presents ‘The Day I Met Björk’ at Arroz & Fun, accompanied by a free, downloadable zine

spike-jonze-bjork-zine.wetransfer.com

Björk has narrated a 3D film for IMAX about Fungi. Fungi: Web of Life, shot mostly in time-lapse, is presented by fungi expert Merlin Sheldrake and, with the Icelandic singer’s narration, lays bare how essential fungi is to the world we live in and how little we know about mycelial life. 

'I am surprised by simple things, like how much how much fungal mycelium there is in a teaspoon of soil – between 100m and 10km,' says Sheldrake. 'It is a lot. These aren't just fungal cells that are just sitting there, they're doing stuff all the time, transforming their surroundings and producing chemicals that produce enzymes that are interacting with each other.'

Fungi: Web of Life – an ecological film narrated by Björk

Microbiologist Sheldrake has been making waves with his book, Entangled Life. It highlights the wonderful world of fungi from the mushrooms we see in forests, to the ones we eat, and the invisible world which exists all around us in everyday life. He was contacted by Australian production company Stranger Than Fiction, which produced the film, bringing together Sheldrake, Björk, and photographer Stephen Axford and filmmaker Catherine Marciniak, founders of Planet Fungi, who captured the stunning footage around which the film is based.  

'I felt like a film about fungi would be fun and exciting,' explains Sheldrake, who has a PhD in tropical ecology from Cambridge University. 'They said that part of the plan was to work with Steve and Catherine, who create amazing time-lapses of growing mushrooms, so I said yes.'

Björk would join the project later in the process, adding her voice to the 3D unfurling beauty of the plants. 'Björk is such a strong artist and with such an expansive vision and a deeply held connection with the living world. It was a joy to work with her and that joy remains,' Sheldrake adds. 

Known for her passionate support for the environment and nature, Björk joins Sheldrake in speaking on how the destruction of ancient forests also destroys the mycelial networks that connect plants under the ground. While fungi appear as mushrooms on the forest floor, or on the surface of plants and trees, they are also in the soil, connecting the roots of plants in what some call the ‘wood wide web’. The majority of the film takes place in Australia, in the ancient Tarkine Rainforest of Tasmania.

'[Featured] are pockets of forest which are like going back in time: they're the fragments of a type of rainforest that existed for millions of years, since the time of the dinosaurs. When you walk in these places, you are transported, so it was extraordinary to be there, shooting on location as part of such a wonderful team,' Sheldrake recalls. 'I was finding extraordinary fungi that I had never seen before, as a northern hemisphere person.'

Fungi and the forest: the ‘wood wibe web’

At the crux of the film is an ecological message, highlighting the fact that we don’t really know what it is that we are destroying as we extract resources from the Earth. 'The film’s purpose is also to draw attention to these forests and the plight of forests around the world, which are threatened by so many various extractive enterprises, as we know. So the story of the film is a journey through fungal life to explore what these organisms are, how they live, how they activate the regenerative capacity of the biosphere and how we can partner with them to adapt to life on a damaged planet,' continues Sheldrake.

The film also goes into the potential for certain species of fungi to do things like biodegrade plastics and grow the framework for new body organs. Such is the range of the potential for good from research into fungi that by the end of the 40-minute documentary, viewers are utterly converted to the change it could make. 

It also gives Sheldrake more people to talk to about fungi. 'I feel like I can now talk to more people about my passion,' he says. 'But there is a more serious, larger point here, which is that fungi are such vital players in the Earth’s systems, and if we don't think about it, then we're missing a large part of the picture and our understanding of life is radically incomplete.'

Fungi: Web of Life is screening at the Bfi IMAX in London

fungimovie.com/theaters

bfi.org.uk

Announced this morning, ‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ (September 16 2023 – 11 February 2024) at the Design Museum will celebrate three decades of trailblazing designers who have lived and worked in the British capital. 

Sponsored by Alexander McQueen and created in association with the British Fashion Council’s Newgen incubator scheme – which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2023 – the display of more than 100 looks will feature boundary-pushing works from designers and brands including Christopher Kane, Craig Green, JW Anderson, Meadham Kirchhoff, Matty Bovan and Wales Bonner.

Each is defined, say the organisers, by a ‘fearless’ approach to design, the exhibition itself offering ‘an unprecedented look at how careers in fashion are forged, and the multitude of opportunities London’s fashion scene offers young creatives’. Several of the items have not been on display since their presentation.

‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ at the Design Museum

Exhibition highlights include Björk’s infamous ‘swan’ dress, designed by Central Saint Martins alum Marjan Pejoski and worn by the musician to the 2001 Oscars (the look even saw her ’lay an egg’ on the red carpet). The dress will be on display in the UK for the first time, alongside other memorable pop culture fashion moments – like a ruffled blue Molly Goddard dress worn by Rihanna in 2017. Both Pejowski and Goddard were part of Newgen, which provides funds and mentorship for emerging British designers.

‘It is impossible to underestimate the influence London has on Britain’s fashion talent a city that produces wave-after-wave of young designers that value originality, wearing what you believe in, and tackling social issues to make a better world,’ says guest curator Sarah Mower MBE, the BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent, who will work alongside Design Museum senior curator Rebecca Lewin on the display.

‘This landmark exhibition will take visitors on a remarkable journey through London’s creative landscape, and to all the locations where all this fashion magic happens,’ she continues. ‘The city’s art schools, clubs and catwalks will be brought to life like never before.’

As such, the exhibition is divided into various sections:  ‘Art School’, showing objects relating to London’s art educational institutions, ‘Backstage Pass’, a look behind-the-scenes of a runway show, and ‘Runway’, which promises a front-row seat to some of the past three decades’ most memorable runway shows.

‘We are delighted to be collaborating with the British Fashion Council to showcase and explore the youthful energy, creative vision and rebellious spirit that is so central to their Newgen programme,’ adds Tim Marlow, Design Museum director and CEO.

‘Visitors are going to be stunned by many of the instantly recognisable fashion items on show, but we hope they’ll also be captivated by the breadth, depth, diversity and world-class talent that has emerged from the London fashion scene in the past three decades.’

‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ will coincide with the S/S 2024 edition of London Fashion Week, opening on September 16 2023 and running until 11 February 2024. Tickets are available from today, here.

‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ will run at London’s Design Museum from September 16 2023 – 11 February 2024.

designmuseum.org

Nail artist Sojin Oh transforms the menial into the magical with her finger-sized sculptures crafted from the detritus of everyday life. Her creations include seascape nails made from fish bones, baby shark teeth, caracol shell, oyster shell, and sea glass; talons constructed from the broken innards of a cell phone; and wearable terrariums constructed entirely out of enamel.  

The surreal nail art of Sojin Oh

The result is a singular range of nail art that looks unlike anything else in the business. In fact, that is exactly why Oh got into the business in the first place – ‘all the designs I wanted for myself were non-existent,’ she tells us from her studio in Los Angeles. ‘I wanted to create nails that no one has ever seen before.’ 

She has lived up to her own challenge and, in doing so, has garnered the attention of our era’s creative iconoclasts and shapeshifters, particularly in the music industry –from Björk, to Arca, Grimes and Rosalía. 

Most recently, Oh created a collection of fungi-filled nails for a Björk tour and album art. ‘Her team reached out to me and gave me creative freedom to explore biomorphic elements that have inspired me from her oeuvre,’ Oh says of the project. ‘I think we share a fearlessness toward being expressive and emotional women artists. I really respect how vulnerable she is in her music, because it really captures the power that emotionality and feeling has relative to logic.’ 

Foraging is a key element of Oh’s process and what she finds often dictates what she creates. ‘The planning and designing process have been fading away from my practice more and more,’ she says. ‘When I see an object or material that grabs my attention in nature, I forage them (of course, not something that’s alive) and start to imagine a sketch in my head – I bring the materials to my home studio and just play around and preserve them in another life with sculpting builder gel.’

Nature remains Oh’s most enduring influence and she sights taking care of the natural world and herself as the key to her creativity. ‘During my childhood days, I thought making yourself look “confident” by wearing a ton of make-up was what I thought beauty meant, and since I was never knowledgeable with make-up, I thought I could never be beautiful. But when I started taking care of myself more, I started to feel beautiful – then I realised the ideas I had in my early years were totally wrong.’

These days, she takes care of herself with acupuncture and cupping (‘It helps to detoxify your skin by [prompting] the production of natural collagen, [to help with] scar healing, eczema and many other health issues’), as well as her own ‘medicinal cocktails’. She is currently working on a cocktail book with the recipes, one of which (pictured above) includes bone broth, Korean cabbage pickle juice, and mezcal. 

instagram.com/sojinails

Behind the scenes of Björk’s music video for Arisen My Senses, directed by Jesse Kanda

‘Cloud-based computer file transfer service’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but WeTransfer is more than just that, having made the Internet a more beautiful place with its on-point curation of full-screen wallpapers from artists and brands around the world.

It may then surprise you less to learn that the Amsterdam and Los Angeles-based company is also a creative incubator, recently announcing a four-part documentary series with Pi Studios exploring what makes artistic partnerships tick. First up: the indelible Björk and visual artist Jesse Kanda.

The pair are frequent collaborators and best friends – their close rapport evident in the brilliantly bizarre art Kanda has realised for the Icelandic musician’s latest album, Utopia. (There is also possibly no moment more Björk, than Björk emerging from a glowing chrysalis in the Kanda-directed music video for Arisen My Senses, below, writhing slug-like creatures notwithstanding).

‘There’s so much more to music than just work,’ says Björk in the inaugural instalment of Work in Progress. ‘If I collaborate, then I want connections to be genuine, for them to be for real.’ Kanda adds: ‘Collaborations forces you to think about where to draw lines, and who you are and who they are.’ You’ll also be treated to some bonus early performance footage of a teenage Björk, who breaks down the Icelandic music scene and how every member of its small but perfectly formed community has their own aesthetic language.

‘With this series we wanted to look at how collaboration really works. We want to go beyond the standard behind-the-scenes, and tap into what creativity looks, sounds and feels like,’ says Jamal Dauda, WeTransfer global head of music. ‘We don’t claim to explain it, but we believe that by showing how creative minds see the worlds around them, and understand each other, we’ll window onto some of the magic and the mystery.’

WeTransfer’s editorial platform – rebranded and relaunched as WePresent at the end of January – has previously presented an online exhibition with Ryan McGinley, created an original podcast series with Gilles Peterson, and sent photographer Nadia Lee Cohen on a US road trip, among other unique commissions.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the WePresent website and the Pi Studios website

Björk's latest album-cum-exhibition – currently on view at Somerset House – promises ‘an immersive virtual reality exhibition from the Icelandic icon'. Pictured: Vulnicura album art

Icelandic singer and songwriter Björk is nothing if not mesmerising. For decades her look, her music and her art have been a constant source of inspiration and intrigue for audiences worldwide, and her latest album-cum-exhibition is no exception.

Staged at the London Design Biennial HQ, Somerset House, ‘Björk Digital’ promises ‘an immersive virtual reality exhibition from the Icelandic icon'. Virtual reality, augmented reality, 360-degree video and soundscaping all come together to create what can only be described as an emotionally stimulating experience. While the technology used throughout is not ‘new’ in and of itself, it hasn't been used or packaged like this before.

That sense of freedom, of going off the beaten track, is 'very Björk'. ‘Technology is enabling women to work outside the already formed hierarchical systems,’ writes the singer on her Facebook page. ‘The laptop gave me a personal studio to make Vespertine; the touchscreen helped me map my own idiosyncratic musicology outside the classical canon and reconnect it with nature and make Biophilia; VR is helping making a new stage free of politics where sound and vision is swirling free in 360, fully liberated.’

The true victory of this latest experiment in the ‘visual album’ is the way in which Björk gives aesthetic value and meaning to sound. Using songs from 2015’s Vulnicura – Björk’s break-up record, famously written after her split from Matthew Barney – it makes for a very intimate experience; at times too much so. As you venture between the eight rooms of the exhibition, putting on various headsets, you encounter different versions of the Icelandic songstress: on the blackened Icelandic beach in ‘Stonemilker’, where she disappears behind you; as an exploding form of sparks in ‘Quicksand’; even a devil-like, moth giantress avatar in ‘Notget’. The latter of these is all the more haunting for it’s 3D nature and complete disregard for your personal space – a nod to 3D porn and it’s significance to software developers, no doubt.

‘I feel the chronological narrative of the album is ideal for the private circus virtual reality is; a theatre able to capture the emotional landscape of it,’ says Björk, highlighting the importance of the interactive element in the exhibition.

The surround-sound system created by The Living for ‘Black Lake’ at MoMA opens the show, and the headline-grabbing video of ‘Mouth Mantra’, created with director Jesse Kanda, captures the inside of Björk’s mouth while she sings the title track. (Not for the faint-hearted or squeamish, that one.)

Overall it is predictably peculiar, but in the most wonderful of ways that only Björk could pull off.

INFORMATION

’Björk Digital’ is on view until 23 October. For more information, visit the Somerset House website

ADDRESS

Somerset House
Strand
London WC2R 1LA

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The verdict on Björk’s multifaceted retrospective - which opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City last Saturday - might still be out, but there is one aspect of the exhibition that is being unanimously well received. The showpiece of the retrospective is an immersive audio and video installation entitled ’Black Lake’.

Commissioned by the museum and designed by The Living, the architecture practice that won MoMA PS1’s Young Architect’s Program in 2014, the installation is a physical incarnation of the eponymous song which features on Björk’s latest album, Vulnicura.

Made up of an organic matrix of black felt cones, ’Black Lake’ is a sensual theatre-like environment that takes over the MoMA’s atrium. It’s the first time that the atrium space has ever been given over for an exhibition’s sake. The luscious installation incorporates two projection screens and conceals 44 loud speakers, making it the ideal acoustic setting to experience Black Lake’s spiralling orchestration and haunting video.

’The brief was to create an immersive physical environment for [the song],’ said David Benjamin, director of The Living, who worked with Björk and the video’s director Andrew Thomas Huang to create the installation. ’If you scan across the room from north to south, each inch corresponds to one second of the song. We created this effect by taking a spectral analysis of the song, projecting it onto the walls and the ceiling, and then using this map to dial in the size and location of each cone.’

Björk’s dark and despairing creation is a moving expression of personal heartbreak, and the song’s complexity is reflected in the 6,000 or more cones that adorn the walls of the cavernous space. Each cone was digitally designed and then stitched and assembled by hand.

’We honed in on the cone shape based on its ability to control sound and on the way we could use it to generate a large undulating landscape from small cells,’ explains Benjamin. ’We wanted to use a tactile, organic material with good acoustic-dampening properties, and we found that felt was perfect. In the end, the room is so dead that it makes you feel your own pulsing life. It conveys the right atmosphere and mood for the song.’

ADDRESS

11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019-5497

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