Exhibition Review:,,Björk Digital exhibition"
Somerset House hosts this month a
hypnotic virtual reality exhibition from Icelandic icon Björk : Björk
Digital, an exhibition of digital and video works, resulting from Björk’s
collaborations with some of the finest visual artists and programmers.
Björk has long been admired as much for her visual artistry
as her musical prowess for her distinctive style Therefore it is not surprising
to find that she is one of the first, and most important, artists to play with
virtual reality: a remarkable medium which is still at the beginning.
Trough
this exhibition Björk is offering visitors a chance to experience her Virtual Reality
works, with additional films being added as the show tours the world.
Björk Digital opens with Andrew Thomas Huang’s film ,,Black Lake”,
with its major Björk retrospective. Shown across two screens, the film sees
Björk perform the song, which appears on her album Vulnicura and is an
emotional dissection of the breakdown of her relationship with artist Matthew
Barney, against clear Icelandic backdrop.
The VR section of the show is made out of a
series of rooms with headsets placed on stools or hanging from the ceiling. Björk
is central to all the films. Whether they place you on an
Icelandic beach, surrounded by beseeching Björks singing Stonemilker, fly you
into inner-space alongside expanding fractal goddess Björks ,both the Quicksand
and Notget pieces are variations on this on different scales, or place you
inside Björk’s singing mouth looking out at another Björk ,they are clearly the product of people having enormous fun with the
creative process.
The experience of the exhibition is varied,
depending in part on how well the tech goes on the headsets. During my visit I
have realized that these experiences are pushing against the edges of the
technology .As a result, It’s hard to let yourself
go completely into these other-worlds, given the chunky VR rig strapped to your
face and the relatively low resolution and occasionally out-of-focus graphics.
The headsets are heavy and uncomfortable and feel restraining:
the opposite, of the impact that Björk hopes to achieve. Virtual Reality is in
its infancy and has lots of limitations
There is still an urgent need to work out how to
successfully present VR and other digital works in exhibition spaces: it feels
wearying to enter room after room of headsets, no matter how dynamic the
content within may be.
Putting aside a desire for tech perfection, and approach the
show as an experiment with VR, there’s much to enjoy. Björk as a performer is
as interesting and captivating as ever.
Björk has long been admired as much for her visual artistry
as her musical prowess for her distinctive style Therefore it is not surprising
to find that she is one of the first, and most important, artists to play with
virtual reality: a remarkable medium which is still at the beginning.
Trough
this exhibition Björk is offering visitors a chance to experience her Virtual Reality
works, with additional films being added as the show tours the world.
Björk Digital opens with Andrew Thomas Huang’s film ,,Black Lake”,
with its major Björk retrospective. Shown across two screens, the film sees
Björk perform the song, which appears on her album Vulnicura and is an
emotional dissection of the breakdown of her relationship with artist Matthew
Barney, against clear Icelandic backdrop.
The VR section of the show is made out of a
series of rooms with headsets placed on stools or hanging from the ceiling. Björk
is central to all the films. Whether they place you on an
Icelandic beach, surrounded by beseeching Björks singing Stonemilker, fly you
into inner-space alongside expanding fractal goddess Björks ,both the Quicksand
and Notget pieces are variations on this on different scales, or place you
inside Björk’s singing mouth looking out at another Björk ,they are clearly the product of people having enormous fun with the
creative process.
The experience of the exhibition is varied,
depending in part on how well the tech goes on the headsets. During my visit I
have realized that these experiences are pushing against the edges of the
technology .As a result, It’s hard to let yourself
go completely into these other-worlds, given the chunky VR rig strapped to your
face and the relatively low resolution and occasionally out-of-focus graphics.
The headsets are heavy and uncomfortable and feel restraining:
the opposite, of the impact that Björk hopes to achieve. Virtual Reality is in
its infancy and has lots of limitations
There is still an urgent need to work out how to
successfully present VR and other digital works in exhibition spaces: it feels
wearying to enter room after room of headsets, no matter how dynamic the
content within may be.
Putting aside a desire for tech perfection, and approach the
show as an experiment with VR, there’s much to enjoy. Björk as a performer is
as interesting and captivating as ever.
