It's becoming more and more clear to me that Bjork is not just a clever popstar. With every solo album she releases, the enigma around her music becomes bigger and as the medium of videoclips has always been very important, each promo she makes is a treat for the eye and mind. For her latest album, Vespertine, one of the songs that stand out is Pagan Poetry, a song about an obsessive love. The video for it shows us snippets of flesh being pierced with needles, threads with pearls on them, followed by images, digitally altered, so you can only see the outlines of what is happening. This video was censored for day-time television, because of the piercing-scenes and as it features several shots where Bjork can be seen topless. It would be the same as if Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon would be censored for it's nudity. Well, actually it was, in the time Picasso painted it. What Bjork shows us here is a deep insight into her mind, the tragedy of love, in a way that cannot be tagged as popmusic. Bjork seems to grow further and further from it, she's becoming a living piece of art.
3 Reviews
aggression, love , depression , love
navogenic18 April 2005
Bjork is not good musician. She is not a great singer. Actually she is a genius. One of the most popular non commercial artists. I cannot recall a song or video of her , no matter how old they are , that sound or look old-fashioned. She admits that the visual art of her is as important as the music of it's own:
"The reason I do photographs is to help people understand my music, so it's very important that I am the same, emotionally, in the photographs as in the music. Most people's eyes are much better developed than their ears. If they see a certain emotion in the photograph, then they'll understand the music."
Pagan Poetry is the second video from her magnificent Vespertine album. Of course it was censored by most of the music channels. Her nipples and pierced body are obvious. In fact a great number of her videos were cut before broadcasting on TV. Unfortunitely that is a kind of mutilation.
The plot of the video is about a bride's wedding preparation. The Visual effects are stunning. All the darkness, combining a digital camera and professional one , computer animation... All in few stylish minutes. Nick Knight is great as usual.
In the beginning of the video you can notice a hidden, masked porno shots. The rumours has it that Bjork is taking a part in them by his own. It would not surprise me at all. Somehow MTV, MCM ... haven't noticed that- all for good though. :) /they censored even All Is Full Of Love video by Chris Cunningham!!!/
Bjork gave all she could in this video. She appears a few times in it , showing a professional acting. The moods she represents in the video are amazing and deeply touching. No surprise she made a brilliant work at "Danser In The Dark".
At the end , I think this is the darkest and most depressive Bjork's video by now and it deserves to be noticed.
"The reason I do photographs is to help people understand my music, so it's very important that I am the same, emotionally, in the photographs as in the music. Most people's eyes are much better developed than their ears. If they see a certain emotion in the photograph, then they'll understand the music."
Pagan Poetry is the second video from her magnificent Vespertine album. Of course it was censored by most of the music channels. Her nipples and pierced body are obvious. In fact a great number of her videos were cut before broadcasting on TV. Unfortunitely that is a kind of mutilation.
The plot of the video is about a bride's wedding preparation. The Visual effects are stunning. All the darkness, combining a digital camera and professional one , computer animation... All in few stylish minutes. Nick Knight is great as usual.
In the beginning of the video you can notice a hidden, masked porno shots. The rumours has it that Bjork is taking a part in them by his own. It would not surprise me at all. Somehow MTV, MCM ... haven't noticed that- all for good though. :) /they censored even All Is Full Of Love video by Chris Cunningham!!!/
Bjork gave all she could in this video. She appears a few times in it , showing a professional acting. The moods she represents in the video are amazing and deeply touching. No surprise she made a brilliant work at "Danser In The Dark".
At the end , I think this is the darkest and most depressive Bjork's video by now and it deserves to be noticed.
Not really art
Horst_In_Translation24 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Pagan Poetry" is a song by Björk from 15 years ago and this one here is the music video directed by Nick Knight. It runs for 6 minutes, so slightly longer than music videos usually do and has Björk one again trying to give us her creative vibe. But it is a failure. If an unknown artist had made this everybody would be complaining because of the nudity and the style being a bit try-hard, but according to many this one here is art? Only because it is from the successful Icelandic singer? I won't deny Björk a certain level of uniqueness, but this is also more to her voice and how she sounds than to really great range or creativity. I personally did not have a great time watching this or listening to this. The song was also fairly forgettable in my opinion. Overall, this is not a good achievement. Thumbs down.
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