Bjork being monsterful and unstoppable again

OK, I've been immersed in my studio the last couple of days making "shadow sculpture" with Erik. Not a lot of time for blogging, though I am accumulating ideas for posts in my mind. Tonight I'll photograph some of our work in progress.

Its so good to be spending more time again in that lost place, that part of the creative process  where the work starts to lead you and you just follow along like an amazed child, and you are exhausted and hungry at the end of the day.

I found the new Bjork video today (Wanderlust). Ummmm......    W O W. You MUST see it. Even if it takes a really long time to download on your computer (mom, you are excused - I think this one would permanently break your dialup connection). Even if you think you think you don't like Bjork. Even if you think you know her, and she isn't your type.

You should especially watch it if you are like me, and you have a long and difficult relationship with her work, in which you have learned much. Like, that for someone to be a major influence and teacher for you, you don't need to like or understand some of that they do.

I happen to LOVE this video, which is made of stop-motion animation, live action, scale models, puppets, computer animation. It to me is about the creative process, the relationship of creator to Creator, to the idea of god as the unknown, god as creativity inherent in everything, the artist wrestling with herself, with her humanity. And, it is like much of her work about nature, experienced through an Icelander. I went to Iceland twice in the dead of winter and traveled the back roads and rural areas, and I understand a teeny bit about the kind of nature in Bjork's work, and can begin to imagine how those spaces would reside in my consciousness if I had grown up there (I said begin to imagine).

Anyhoo, she's a role model for me, because she creates whole new universes to live in and share,  totally her own way. And they are not fantasy lands really, they bump into and struggle with the more mundane realities we know, they are dissonant and uncomfortable, they integrate our weird technologies, and she plops herself right into the center of each one, which I sometimes love and sometimes hate. She inhabits them so much that we sometimes can't inhabit them. I like to get lost in alternate realities, but in hers I am always aware of her very big presence. I kind of love that. Arg.

I think I'll try to give Medulla a listen again today.

Comments

[Mom]

Amy, could you download the Bjork video to a dvd and bring it with you when you visit?
Love,Mom

[Tim]

she creates whole new universes to live in and share, totally her own way.

Not only that, but she's managed to bring a lot of people along with her. I'm deeply inspired by her artistry.

I don't know if I'd tag her with the 'genius' label, but she takes ideas and experiments with technology and music to places not many in pop music will dare to tread. I regard her as a true artist because she doesn't shy away from pushing the limits of what she's willing do.

Her work is difficult at times and I don't like all of it, but she makes the music world a lot more interesting.

[Amy]

she does, doesn't she? and can we think of another musician in the pop realm who has taken thier experiments that far, while crossing genres with film, performance art, video art, etc?