Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.05.2019, Page 30

Music
A Utopian
Reverie
Björk’s ‘Cornucopia’ sounds the
alarm call for a world in peril
Words: Eli Petzold Photo: Santiago Felipe
Concert Series
Björk’s ‘Cornucopia’ is a series
of eight sold-out shows taking
place at The Shed in New York City
between May 6th and June 1st
“Imagine a future and be in it,”
Björk sings in “Tabula Rasa,” the
final song before the encore of
‘Cornucopia,’ an elaborate audio-
visual production commissioned
by The Shed, Manhattan’s brand
new, state-of-the-art performance
space.
The line appears earlier in the
show, projected on a scrim, amidst
a manifesto for a brighter tomor-
row: an allegorical island teeming
with the animal-plant hybrids that
appear in the lush visuals accom-
panying the performance. Citing
the Paris Climate Accord as an ex-
emplum of utopian ideation, the
manifesto implores the audience
to confront our impending climate
cataclysm by breaking out of an-
tiquated ways of problem-solving:
“Our past is on loop,” the text pro-
claims. “Turn it off.”
With ‘Cornucopia,’ Björk contin-
ues to develop the rigorous intellec-
tual and political questions posed
on her latest album, ‘Utopia,’ col-
laborating with a massive ensem-
ble to imagine a future liberated
from the prescriptive precedent of
history.
Swamp sprite realness
As the title and media fanfare
promised, ‘Cornucopia’ spills over
The Shed’s proscenium, lavish-
ing upon the audience a surfeit of
sounds, sights, text, and ideas—a
sumptuous and savoury feast that
can be ingested, but not digested,
in its 100-minute duration.
Something tells me that’s pre-
cisely the point.
It ’s diff icu lt to
k now where to
look throughout
t h e sh ow: t wo
semi-translucent
c u r t a i n s, com-
prised of dangling
cables, open and
c l o s e b e t w e e n
and during songs,
providing an ev-
er-shifting screen
for v isuals (de-
signed by Tobias
Gremmler) of plants morphing, of-
ten erotically, into hybrid organic
forms (à la ‘Annihilation’). Mean-
while Viibra, an Icelandic flautist
septet, attend upon Björk like a
Greek chorus as she hops between
the fungus pads that comprise the
stage. Björk and the ensemble peri-
odically retreat to a reverb cham-
ber—a tall, vaguely yonic chapel
with a Gothic dome—as if to steal
a moment’s prayer; even the per-
cussionist (Manu Delago) charts a
peripatetic course across the stage,
playing a series of novel, bespoke
instruments.
Oh, and everyone’s serving some
mutant swamp sprite realness,
thanks to wardrobing from fashion
house Balmain, masks crafted by
wonderful weirdo James Merry, and
makeup by distorted drag pioneer
Hungry. Wait, okay, there’s also the
50-odd members of the Hamrahl-
íð Choir on the stage; oh yeah, and
harpist Katie Buckley; and, and…
Coordinating chaos
Yet by no means is ‘Cornucopia’
gluttonous. It’s what I imagine a
meal at Noma to be like: ornate but
restrained, abstract but candid, cer-
ebral but spiritual, irregular but in-
tentional. The care in
each artistic decision
reveals the presence
of some demiurgic
principle scrupulous-
ly coordinating chaos
to convey narrative
and trigger emotion,
contemplation, and
action.
The Hamrahlíð
choir opens the show,
on risers set before
the stage, singing
a cappella arrange-
ments of Björk songs (“Cosmog-
ony,” “Sonnets/Unrealities XI”)
alongside musical settings of po-
ems by some of Iceland’s most im-
portant authors.
“Cornucopia
continues to
develop the
rigorous intel-
lectual and
political ques-
tions posed on
Utopia.”
30The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08— 2019
The multimedia feast of Björk's 'Cornucopia'
Opening Hours
Daily 10–17
Closed on
Mondays 16/9–30/4
The National Museum of Iceland
Suðurgata 41, 101 Reykjavík
The Culture House
Hverfisgata 15, 101 Reykjavík
www.nationalmuseum.is
+354 530 2200
@icelandnationalmuseum
@thjodminjasafn
NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF ICELAND
THE CULTURE HOUSE
WELCOME
TO THE
CULTURE
HOUSE
Points of view:
A journey through the
visual world of Iceland.
Laugavegi 28
537 99 00
sumac@sumac. is
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