Unofficial Icelandic national hero (and sometime Brooklynite) Björk is back, baby.
Her new MOCA-commissioned video for “Mutual Core,” from her 2011 album-cum-educational art installation Biophilia, is just as odd and visually stunning as you’d expect: the singer, decked out in an Ursula-esque blue wig, directs a cast of gravity-defying humanoid crustaceans in a cycle of colliding, kissing, and pushing each other away.
As the spare, organ-backed verse finally gives way to a sonic explosion, her creatures reach their breaking point, spewing lava and shrapnel. “You didn’t know I had it in me,” she sings over a frantic electronic throb, her voice hoarse with emotion.
Though director Andrew Thomas Huang’s technical wizardry underscores Björk’s super-sciencey aspirations (fun fact: Biophilia is now part of the middle school science curriculum in Reykjavík, Iceland!) the vid speaks to the difficulties of forced interaction. Like tectonic plates, we slide, we split, or we explode—and it’s a sight to behold.
Check it out right here:
Video via moca.org
