Curator's Note
Indie producer Fever Ray is known for esoteric lyrics and stunningly dark imagery. From the music video for “If I Had a Heart,” reminiscent of the Jonestown massacre, to her appearance receiving a P3 Guld award, wearing a mask allegedly simulating acid burns as a form of protest, Fever Ray’s artistry is influenced by the spectacularly macabre. One example is the video for “When I Grow Up,” in which a young woman wearing a pastiche of symbols stands on a diving board of a pool. Covered in face paint, feathers, fabrics, symbols such as eyes on her palms, &c., she performs a dance that, though angular and frenetic, emphasizes the rhythm of the song as her movements become increasingly fluid (compare 1:27 to 2:30). The image is that of feral pagan juxtaposed with domestic. Throughout the video, we get glimpses from inside the house (e.g. 0:18, 2:39) and from below the surface of the pool (e.g. 0:43, 3:11), the camera angle offering an almost voyeuristic perspective, as if this dance is the natural and the domestic is intrusion.
Though the Gaze is pervasive, the performance becomes linked to the perspective of the disembodied aqueous eye. The woman bites her finger and then lets a drop of water, saliva, or (symbolically) blood drip down into the pool (2:09). Regardless of what it is, there is an exchange of body for a vague something: it isn’t until this drop hits the surface that the dance becomes significantly more fluid and the water more closely linked to the ritualistic movements. However, the body is not subjected to a loss of agency in this exchange. Through the ritual, the woman has assumed control of whatever is in the water, each shift of the body causing the water to burst into geysers (2:49). If the water is an extension of the fluvial “body” that is pure perspective (i.e. an iteration of the Gaze), this woman’s dance has direct control over it. The purpose of ritual for this figure, then, is not simply using the body, but rather finding new means of embodiment through symbolic extension. In this way, the ritual subverts the Gaze, subjecting it to the body rather than the other way around, allowing the woman to control it instead of being subjected to it.
Comments
This was an interesting
This was an interesting video. I wonder if there's a way to approach the symbiosis between ritual and the natural elements via Native American dancing (as a way to call forth the elements, talk to the gods, show respect for life forces) - which I know little to nothing about. It seems like many of the elements of pastiche the actress/singer displays here harness that type of connection to animistic culture. And, I wonder if Guy Debord's theory of the spectacle gives some perspective on the form here - video, meant to be mass distributed for promoting the music. "a spectacle is generally understood as a “person or thing exhibited to, or set before, the public gaze as an object either (a) of curiosity or contempt, or (b) of marvel or admiration.” Such an exhibition is intended to form an “impressive or interesting show or entertainment for those viewing it.” Certainly applies to the outer framework - I wonder if that clouds the artist/director's intention of the gaze. I guess the medium problematizes the ritual and the gaze, by nesting potential perspectives?
Native Ritualism & Musical Occultism
One thing that strikes me about the ways in which we both discuss and utilize native ritual in popular culture is that the practices themselves are often occulted. One thing which causes a large amount of controversy within Native American communities is the practice of making their culture into a spectacle at all, and in fact some religious ceremonies are not performed in front of non-natives at all. The religions themselves are occulted from the eyes of those who have systemically oppressed them. It seems to me that Fever Ray is playing around in this milieu in this video, though of course perhaps it is correct to point toward a generalization of these reference points within native cultures. In particular, I wonder how the legacy of occultation of ritual plays into the relationship between Swedish and Norwegian peoples and the Sami people of the far north, the original tribal inhabitants of those Scandinavian lands. I know that Norway in particular has forced some of the same strictures historically against the Sami as the U.S., and knowing how political (in roundabout ways) Karin Dreijer Andersson is in her art, I wonder if this plays a role in the video for "When I Grow Up" as well. It of course plays well and meaningfully (as we can see in Heather's comment above) across national borders, but it's something to ponder, I think, with our object being "media" herein, and in this instance, its ability to reveal something which has heretofore been occulted in some way for very particular reasons, whether the object in question is real or imagined. Thinking on the pair of your posts together, I like to think that Fever Ray's entire album is playing on the notion of occult history within music itself, including the use of layered sounds, multiple vocal tracks, and chthonic tonality to evoke an otherworldly existence. Typically this existence has been hinted to in the claims of Satanic verses and prayers in reverse-playback of LPs and cover art for rock 'n' roll bands, as well as the many occult histories of music itself, including Robert Johnson's rather infamous deal with the Devil. I'm wondering how this ties into the "spectacle" aspect. Do you see it as playing a separate part in how we view the ways gazing at the body works in this video? Are there counter-examples in similar videographies of pop artists?
Wow.
I'm not overly familiar with Fever Ray, but I love the detailing of occult history going on here. I love the way the DeBordian spectacle is leveraged for performance. I think that might be most of Rock as genre--at least from the glam days forward though. Thanks for the thoughts. I'll have to muse on them some more.
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