Performative Processes: Björk's Creative Collaborations with the World of Fashion

Abstract

This article analyzes how Icelandic singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion icon Björk uses dress as a creative medium to enhance her musical vision, visualize her patriotic politics, as well as ally herself with performance art and further strengthen her position in the avant-garde. I devote specific attention to her joining forces with British designer Alexander McQueen and British photographer Nick Knight and unpack the implications of this creative collaboration, arguing that Björk strategically uses McQueen's and Knight's understanding of fashion as a performative process, that is, constantly in a state of becoming and transformation, in order to create her unique style that is characterized by the shifting and unstable identity of the Icelandic geographical body. In the last part of the article, I take Björk's involvement with SHOWstudio as a starting point to reflect on some of the consequences when these visual and performative collaborations move into the realm of the digital.

KEYWORDS:

• Björk
• Alexander McQueen
• Nick Knight
• performance
• collaboration