FKA twigs teams up with Andrew Thomas Huang for Cellophane video

FKA twigs’ newest video cements the musician’s commitment to surreal visuals, featuring a melancholic pole dance and an encounter with a bizarre robo-dragon

“When I wrote Cellophane over a year ago, a visual narrative came to me immediately, I knew I had to learn how to pole-dance to bring it to life, and so that’s what I did,” wrote the musician in an Instagram post about the film. It’s directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, who’s known for his work with Björk – including the music video for The Gate, as well as her Stonemilker VR experience.

Huang’s influence is particularly obvious midway through the music video, when a digitally generated dragon with FKA twigs’ face appears, and dissolves into shards. And while she might be wearing plastic stripper heels and dancing round a pole, it’s a far cry from the crudeness of other music videos in this vein.

In an interview with CR in 2015, the musician emphasised that she’s tried to get away from the male gaze, and explore less predictable images of women.

For her Pendulum video – where she’s tied up using Japanese bondage style shibari – she encouraged cameramen to find new angles, shooting her calves, bound feet and the marks on her arms, rather than the usual face and chest. Twigs has also been exploring directing her own videos too.

“It makes me feel sick if I’m in a video trying to look as hot as I can look…. Although in my music there is an element of sensuality, it’s not really about sex, it’s not really about being sexy, it’s actually so much deeper than that,” the musician told CR.

Credits:
Concept by FKA twigs and Andrew Thomas Huang
Director and editor: Andrew Thomas Huang
Production company: Object & Animal