Turn the clock back to 1995. It’s the era of Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet.” Detour Magazine asks Spike Jonez to photograph Björk, and he’s as smitten as all of us with her creative imagination. Now we get to see still more photos of that day, plus words and a complete chifa wonton recipe – for free.
Jonze captured Björk in 1995 at the Chateau Marmont, the classic 1929 hotel on Sunset Boulevard. (It’s been a location for various photographs and films’ new management transformed it from its public hotel state through some other private iterations.) Only six of Spike Jonze’s shots made it into Detour; now we get to see more of the roll. You may have seen some blips about the exhibition in LA, which opened on Valentine’s Day, featuring those never-before-seen shots. But now, if you didn’t get to see the exhibition in person, you can live vicariously – and transport yourself to 1995 – with a downloadable exhibition zine. It’s produced in collaboration with WeTransfer, so of course, that’s where the PDF download is:
The Day I Met Björk [PDF download]
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It’s a fantasy of American immigrant life, the coming together of Asia, Latin America, and Iceland over music, art, and food. Fashion designer and creative director Humberto Leon interviews Jonze. Leon is hosting the photo exhibition at his own Peruvian-inspired breakfast, coffee, and culture joint, Arroz & Fun. So, it’s fitting, given Leon was born to a Peruvian father and Chinese mother, that you get a recipe for “Chinese Peruvian Wontons in Chicken Broth.” That’s right in the tradition of Peruvian hybrid original chifa cuisine, and it comes courtesy Chef John “Rue” Liu.
As Jonez tells Leon:
I thought she’s sort of mythical, or you don’t know who she is. She’s this mystery from another dimension or something. And then as soon as I met her, I was like, “Oh no, she’s just this awesome Icelandic girl from a punk band.” And she’s from that scene and I’m from this scene, but they’re the same scenes just from different cities. That’s why she was so down. She didn’t have any entourage. She didn’t have a publicist. She didn’t have a hair and makeup person. I was like, “Oh, okay. We’re just going to make something together.” Our friendship still sort of meets at that place. She’s just this Icelandic punk who probably can drink a lot more vodka than, well… definitely can drink a lot more vodka than I could.
It’s charming to browse through the contact sheets and images. All the unique star power of Björk aside, it’s maybe just the sort of punk feeling we need.
Here’s a great casual interview from 1995 – I’m all about whatever format this is:
If you are in LA, the exhibition is up through June.
I’m definitely going to make those wontons.
By the way, speaking of downloads – the out-of-print Palm Pictures / Director’s Label tribute to Spike Jonez is up on Internet Archive:
The Work Of Director Spike Jonze
Seems not … entirely legal, that; please re-release these on a better-quality format, actually! That’ll be a shut up and take my money sort of situation.