The short, with art by Gabríela Friðriksdóttir and animation by Pierre-Alain Giraud, features unsettling yet organic visuals, with an interesting ‘paper-like,’ canvas texture mixed with AI generation.
Following a series of videos from her 2022 album Fossora, Björk has now dropped an animated music video for “Victimhood,” directed by Gabríela Friðriksdóttir and Pierre-Alain Giraud, with art by Friðriksdóttir and animation by Giraud.
Sharing the video on her Instagram, Björk says that she is “honoured” to collaborate with Friðriksdóttir, and that, “She is one of my best friends and me and my children have lived with her paintings, sculptures, drawings, films and animations all of our lives.”
“I was absolutely fascinated by the song,” said Friðriksdóttir in a statement. “I couldn’t forget it, I had some dreams about it too. It was a deep connection from the first time I heard it.”
The visuals are unsettling yet organic, with an interesting ‘paper-like,’ almost canvas texture mixed with AI generation. Other songs such as “atopos” and “ovule” also use similar biological and mushroom-like imagery.
“The song deals with things that I often think about, it’s about self-pity and how ridiculous you were or how funny you were in a situation, or in a strange place where you had hard times, and then you see yourself,” Friðriksdóttir continued. “Instead of pointing at somebody else all the time, it’s so nice to rediscover yourself. To break through the concrete mask of a certain feeling at a certain time. I think in the lyrics themselves, there’s this poetry about a human situation that’s really welcoming for everyone. I think everyone can understand it.”
Speaking of the partnership and inspiration for the music video, Björk admitted she and Friðriksdóttir “decided to create animation and AI work from Gabríela´s [oil] paintings for my song ‘Victimhood’. For me it was a lush moment, connecting our mutual past and catapulting us into the future.”
Experience the AI-meets-oil painting music video for “Victimhood” now:
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