For Björk, healing is the gateway through which the rest of your life can flourish. The enigmatic Icelandic musician’s 2017 single, The Gate, is accompanied by an otherworldly music video where this special universe comes to life: a world of dazzling colors and ethereal visions with Björk at the center of it all, moving like water in stunning costumes.
One of those dresses was designed by Alessandro Michele for Gucci. The white, high-necked, embroidered gown, which features light-up PVC pleats and wings, took more than 500 hours to design, and another 300 hours to embroider — that’s 33 days of continuous work.
Björk’s white orchid dress from The Gate music video is being prepared for screening at ACMI.Credit: Simon Schlüter
It comes to Melbourne as part of ACMI’s new exhibition, The Future and Other Stories, with an accompanying headpiece by Björk’s long-time collaborator, artist James Merry.
The dress is one of the most prominent features of the exhibition, which will explore the imagination of the future through screen culture. Other items on display include costumes from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, miniature sets from Blade Runner 2049, and concept art from video games and original First Nations missions.
Bringing such an elaborate dress to life in a museum is a labor of love that takes weeks on end of dedicated work. The dress, which traveled to Melbourne from Björk’s record label in London, comes in several separate parts. ACMI’s team of costume and costume experts creates a realistic human body on a pink mannequin, then dresses it in the ornate costume.
“We have a modeling specialist and a costume and textile conservator, both of whom work on laying the foundations that will be on the model to provide support and make the dress look its absolute best,” says Holly Robbins, ACMI’s senior exhibition registrar. And groups.
Björk, Portal, album artwork. Image source: Courtesy Andrew Thomas Huang
“It’s a very elaborate, intricately detailed dress. We want to make sure we’re able to give the model a little more shape…and that’s when the costume really comes to life.”
The dress will be displayed on a pedestal under carefully thought-out lighting, surrounded by animated clips. “There’s a lot of iridescence in the dress…it looks different in almost any light. Depending on the angle you’re standing at, the color can change to blue, violet, pink,” Robbins says. “Hopefully, with really dynamic lighting, you can From capturing those changes in iridescence and getting all the different colors and palettes.”
