Are Björk and Matthew Barney Moving to Fort Greene? (Yes, It Seems So)
Just this morning, on my way to work, I found out that “Björk” rhymes with “jerk.” My friend told me that he knew this because Björk herself had said it, “I’m Björk. Rhymes with jerk.” After saying that, she probably cartwheeled away, leaving a path of some small, snow-colored (yes, that means white) trail of Nordic flowers blooming in her wake. She’s kind of the best, you know?
But so, because she’s the best, it’s with no small amount of interest that I just read in the New York Observer that it seems like she and husband, artist Matthew Barney, will be moving into a charming Fort Greene wooden house. The couple have lived in Brooklyn Heights since 2009, but appear to be trading in their $4 million-penthouse for a $1.99 million Italianate frame house on South Elliott Place, which the Observer calls “bedraggled” and I call beautiful—it is, after all, only a few houses down from one of our 25 favorite houses in Brooklyn. Admittedly, of course, the house is what you’d call a fixer-upper (what can you get under $2 million that isn’t, right? right?! shit), but it’s also 160 years old! What wouldn’t be a fixer-upper at that stage of the game, you know?
There’s no immediate confirmation that the Matthew Barney who has just purchased this house is the same Matthew Barney that recently showed his River of Fundament* at nearby BAM, but considering that the same real estate attorney was used for this purchase as was used for the Brooklyn Heights home, it seems likely. So, welcome to the neighborhood Matthew and Björk! Hope to see you at BAM sometime soon.
*Initially, this said Cremaster Cycle, which, well, was wrong.
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