She put Icelandic art-punk on the map and wore a swan dress to the Oscars. Now, Björk is getting a museum show.
The pop-star’s mid-career retrospective is opening on Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art and features music videos, objects, instruments and costumes that have shaped her career for more than 20 years.
The exhibit, which was conceived and organized by Klaus Biesenbach, chief curator at large at MoMA and director of MoMA PS1, consists of two music-video rooms (one of them commissioned by MoMA) and an installation called "Songlines." It’s audio tour of her seven solo albums, juxtaposed with a story of a girl and a heart that is part-biographical, part fictional. Props and costumes are on display. In the lobbies, four musical instruments she has used are on view, programmed to play.
But for WNYC's art critic Deborah Solomon, the show is "an abomination." In this interview, Solomon said she respects Björk as an artist and she applauds MoMA for doing a monographic show about a pop musician for the first time – it’s the same museum that opened a film department in 1935, she explained, when people thought films were entertainment and didn’t belong there.
But Solomon said the show is a missed opportunity because it doesn’t offer the two things it should: learning and emotional experiences. “There is absolutely no information to put her work into context or see how it evolves, and we can’t really feel anything because it’s so crowded and the traffic flow does not work at all.”
The piece commissioned by MoMA is what the museum is calling a "music installation" for the song "Black Lake" from her new album, “Vulnicura.”
Solomon said the video and the song, like much of the album, is about the breakup of her relationship with the artist Matthew Barney. “There is nothing wrong with revenge in art, I think revenge is a great motive for all kinds of art,” said Solomon. “But I didn’t feel like she really rises above her anger in the show. I felt the white elephant in the room was Matthew Barney. He was an influence in her work and I think that should have been acknowledged.”
Björk made a brief appearance at the press preview. A group of about one hundred journalists were kept in the warm, dark room of “Black Lake” waiting for about 20 minutes. She showed up dressed as a black cactus, thanked several people and said that the show had been “quite a journey.”
For Solomon, that appearance is an example of how the show is too much about the worship of a celebrity, and not about an artistic experience. Which makes her wonder whether Björk belongs at MoMA? What do you think? Join the conversation with a comment.
