P. 1/ 12
CLJ LAM
Discuss Björk’s Music Video
‘All is Full of Love ’ in relation to
Sexuality and Postrmodernity
P. 2/ 12
CLJ LAM
‘Sexuality, on the other hand, functions as an equally desired and feared subversion of
identities and is therefore an intrinsically metaphoric concept in comparison with the
symbolic strategies of gender ascription. All the more critical are therefore
the continual commodifications affecting sexuality throughout its history…
commodifications that also form one of the most frequent goals of
critics of the concept of “postmodernity” and “postmodern” culture.’
(Rainer Emig, Alien Sex Fiends: Sexuality as Postmodern Metaphor,
Extract from paper’s abstract, CATH Congress 2002, The University of Leeds)
I have chosen the music video (MV) ‘All is Full of Love’ of Icelandic Singer Björk to be the cultural
text of my study. There are two reasons for this: first, this MV has an explicit and abstract content
associated with female sexuality and homosexuality; second, the artist and director are both at the
forefront of visual arts with their complex imaginations for the compilation and manipulation of all
different visual genres into items of popular culture and therefore fit well into the features of
postmodernity.
By using the theories of Hélène Cixious, Judith Butler and Susan Bordo, I will be doing an
investigation into the fictional representations of sexuality in the MV. I will also be demonstrating
the ways in which the MV is linked with postmodernity by looking at the arguments of Jean-
François Lyotard and Fredric Jameson.
P. 3/ 12
CLJ LAM
Background and Synopsis of the MV
The song ‘All is Full of Love’ is written by Björk, produced by Howie B and released in June 1999 in
Björk's ‘Homogenic’ album. Its MV director is Chris Cunningham. Upon first listening to the song,
Cunningham has this reaction: ‘When I first heard the track I wrote down the words; “sexual”,
“milk”, “white porcelain”, “surgery”… “It's a combination of several fetishes: industrial robotics,
female anatomy, and fluo