What can a Bjork dress teach us about the future? Well, we’re about to find out

For Björk, healing is a gate through which the rest of your life can blossom. The enigmatic Icelandic musician’s 2017 single, The Gate, is accompanied by an otherworldly music video where this private universe comes to life: a world of dazzling colours and ethereal visions with Björk the centre of it all, moving like water in striking costumes.

One of those dresses was designed by Alessandro Michele for Gucci. The high-necked, beaded white gown, which has luminous PVC pleats and wings, took more than 500 hours to design, and a further 300 hours to embroider – that’s 33 days of non-stop labour.

Björk’s white orchid dress from The Gate music video being prepped for display at ACMI.Credit: Simon Schluter

It comes to Melbourne as a part of ACMI’s new exhibition, The Future and Other Fictions, with an accompanying headpiece by Björk’s long-time collaborator, the artist James Merry.

The dress is one of the highlights of the exhibition, which will explore imaginations of the future through screen culture. Other items on show include costumes from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, miniature sets from Blade Runner 2049, concept art from video games and original First Nations commissions.

Bringing such an elaborate dress to life in a museum setting is a labour of love that involves weeks on end of dedicated work. The dress, which travelled to Melbourne from Björk’s record label in London, comes in many separate parts. ACMI’s team of costume and fashion experts are working to create a realistic human body on a pink mannequin, then clothe it in the ornate outfit.

“We have a costume display specialist and a fashion and textiles conservator who are both working on putting in the underpinnings that will be on the mannequin to provide support and make the dress look its absolute best,” says Holly Robbins, ACMI’s senior registrar in exhibitions and collections.

Björk, The Gate, album artwork.Credit: Courtesy Andrew Thomas Huang

“It’s a really elaborate, intricately detailed dress. We want to make sure that we are able to give a bit more shape to the mannequin … That’s when the costume really comes to life.”

The dress will be displayed on a plinth under carefully considered lighting, surrounded by moving image clips. “There’s a lot of iridescence in the dress … it looks different in pretty much any light. Depending on what angle you’re at, it can change to blues and purples and pinks,” Robbins says. “We’re hoping with really dynamic lighting, you’re going to catch those changes in the iridescence and have all the different colours and palettes come through.”

Merry’s headpiece, which features the same PVC elements, is an essential part of the costume.

To make the delicate crown, the UK-born, Iceland-based artist had many conversations with Björk and music video director Andrew Thomas Huang, as well as referring to Michele’s dress samples and sketches. “There is usually a lot of dialogue back and forth, always stemming from Björk’s references, ideas and instincts,” Merry says.

A headpiece designed by James Merry to accompany the dress will also be on display.Credit: Simon Schluter

One of the references for The Gate was the snakes found in kundalini yoga. Merry followed that lead to create the ghostly silhouette of the headpiece.

“I had those in mind while I started sculpting the mask, as well as orchids and alien flowers,” he says. “I had found an interesting white thermo-felt that I really liked, as I discovered that I could heat it to the right temperature where the texture became quite bone-like.”

Because the mannequin does not have a nose or ears, the crown will be secured with a complex support system.

“We have to try and create a mount that’s going to blend into the colour of the mannequin and basically disappear, while still providing that level of support so the headpiece stays in place,” Robbins explains. “It’s not exactly a human face, so where it would have fit beautifully on Björk, we’re having to make quite a few adjustments to get it to actually sit and look really fantastic on the mannequin’s head.”

Björk fans need not stop at admiring the dress. The musician will be further celebrated with a film season running alongside the exhibition until mid-December, with screenings including Dancer in the Dark, Tank Girl and Fungi: Web of Life, a documentary narrated by Björk that showed at Melbourne International Film Festival in August; and a free showcase of concert visuals by animation collective Lynn Fox.

The Future and Other Fictions is on at ACMI from November 28 until April 27.

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