FKA twigs, the visionary musician, dancer, and multi-disciplinary artist, will unveil a major new work of art at Sotheby’s in London. Staged over two weeks in Sotheby’s New Bond Street galleries, The Eleven will bring FKA twigs’ fiercely independent creative vision to the forefront of the contemporary art scene.
Sotheby’s is the perfect space — full of artworks by the great masters I studied and loved. At the same time, there’s something subversive about birthing my piece in such an established institution.
FKA twigs
The Eleven is a durational artwork, conceived by FKA twigs and performed by a rotating group of eleven ‘movers.’ The piece, developed by FKA twigs over many months, is a physical and artistic quest for selfhealing, rooted – in part – in her decades spent in movement practice, somatic healing technique and by implementing conscious action on repeat. FKA twigs herself will participate alongside a changing cast of diverse movers from different backgrounds and walks of life. They will embody the method and record in real time the changes they feel in their mind and body.
FKA twigs has always been a creative force of nature, consistently pushing the boundaries of music, movement, video, art, and performance in her work. With The Eleven, she continues to explore new artistic territories, affirming her place among the most innovative and exciting artists working today. This will also be a step into uncharted territory for Sotheby’s, which has never presented an artwork of this kind in its 280-year history
ARTISTIC THREADS
The fine arts have long been a discreet yet integral thread in FKA twigs’ creative output: her second album, MAGDALENE, was inspired by Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting of the same name which hangs in London’s National Gallery; after a chance encounter with Tracey Emin at the age of 19, FKA twigs wrote a song, My Bed, as a homage to the artist, and subsequently, they developed a pen-pal relationship, which inspired FKA twigs as a young artist. FKA twigs also spent time with Marina Abramovic at the eponymous Institute, and the music video for Don’t Judge Me was filmed in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Other videos and performances are rich with art historical references.
A classically trained dancer, FKA twigs recently performed avant-garde pioneer Martha Graham’s solo Satyric Festival Song (1932) at the Martha Graham Dance Company gala in New York City. Through her own breathtaking work, she has continually explored the power, energy, and vulnerability of the human body. With The Eleven, FKA twigs weaves these threads together to create her first fully realized durational artwork.
After 280 years in business, what keeps the flame alive is continuing to open our doors to new forms of creative expression. This collaboration with FKA twigs is an unprecedented opportunity for visitors to Sotheby’s to witness the unique intersection of contemporary art, music and movement close up, and we hope walk away having discovered something altogether original.
CÉCILE BERNARD, SOTHEBY’S MANAGING DIRECTOR, EMEA
The opening of the exhibition will coincide with the release of FKA twigs’ first single in four years, and anticipates her much-awaited new album EUSEXUA. The inspiration and guiding force behind both the artwork and the album is the feeling of ‘Eusexua’, a term coined by FKA twigs – who has a love of creating new and playful words to describe emotions with no previous nomenclature – to capture a state of profound clarity and creativity.
Eusexua is the thing that makes me feel alive. A moment of pure clarity when everything moves out of the way, everything is completely blank, and your mind is elevated.
FKA twigs
While filming the newly-released remake of The Crow in Prague, FKA twigs found herself drawn to the city’s pulsating underground techno scene. She would lose herself in the crowds and the raw energy of Prague’s clubs, and it was here that the concept of Eusexua was born. “It’s that feeling of when you’ve been dancing all night and you lose seven hours to music… and you think, ‘oh my gosh, it’s eight in the morning and last time you looked it was one,’” she explains.
Reaching that state of Eusexua is what the performance at Sotheby’s is all about: dealing with, and overcoming, through a series of healing somatic movements, the eleven aspects of life that FKA twigs has found are most critical to her well-being.
The Eleven is an ambitious durational artwork that showcases the depth of FKA twigs’ creative vision. The work will feature a rotating group of eleven ‘movers’ who will engage in a series of physical mantras, which explore themes of healing, transformation, and resilience.
Each of the eleven movements is designed to tackle one of the eleven aspects of life that FKA twigs has identified as critical to her own well-being. In typical, playful, fashion she has found a special name, or ‘Twigism’, as she calls it*, for each of the eleven.
They are:
- Intake = Intake
- Keychain = Company
- Crone = Relationship to Technology
- Minestate = Self-Awareness and Personal Opinion of Oneself
- Shaping = Environment
- The Art of Sol = Simplicity
- Looping = Artistic Creation
- Opus = Self Expression
- Truth = The Truth and Spirituality
- Eusexua Body = Movement
- Primal Revelation = Nature
For each of the above, FKA twigs has developed a sequence of movement mantras, all diligently workshopped with her creative community and designed to prompt mediation and change, ranging from “practically undetectable gestures for discreet public use to much larger and bolder physical movements that can be expressed alone in private or in a safe space with like-minded individuals.”
The movements, repeated for eleven minutes each, are intended to evolve as the participants become physically and emotionally exhausted. The process can be disjointed, chaotic, and at times raw, but it is in this rawness that the beauty of human experience is revealed. As “exhaustion kicks in, the movements, will look different. It’s about exploring these feelings until you feel exhausted and then pushing through and finding a new point of view.”
The duration piece will be accompanied by a live evolving score performed in Sotheby’s galleries by musician and producer, Matteo Chiarenza-Santini, who also collaborated with FKA twigs on her upcoming album, ‘EUSEXUA’. Matteo distorts elements of techno and other genres of experimental electronic music, with the more melancholic and orchestral elements of chamber music to create a totally unique sound. For The Eleven, Matteo plans to bring together a broad array of instruments, including modular synthesizers, tape machines, gong and drums.
EUSEXUA: A Gesamtwerk
Beyond the durational piece that will be at the heart of the Sotheby’s experience, Eusexua is, for FKA twigs, a fully developed method of living that has been in the making for over five years.
An entire room at Sotheby’s will be devoted to the process by which Eusexua has come into being: the years of research and thinking that has gone into its development, all charted through the pages of FKA twigs’ personal sketchbook; an exhaustive series of polaroids chronicling the development of the eleven moves.
Over the course of this period, FKA twigs’ devotion to complete creative freedom also extended to the way she dressed. For an entire year, she wore simple yet beautiful pieces of clothing, developed in conjunction with her friend and collaborator Yaz XL, and developed with designer Camille Liu, and hand dyed in a particular shade of blue. Inspired by the simple elegance of Japanese attire, the garments allowed her freedom of movement and expression, and to focus on the internal rather than the external. This modular clothing system will be worn by the movers in the Sotheby’s event, and will also be available for purchase from January 2025.
The Sketchbook
Beautiful drawings, in pen and ink, and in watercolour, charting the development of The Eleven moves.
Labanotation: the moves are also charted out by FKA twigs using an historic form of dance notation, the art of which has, with the advent of technology, almost died. FKA twigs’ research led her to seek out the few remaining living practitioners (she was only able to identify three). Her sketchbooks see her revive this lost art form; an act that speaks more broadly to her powerful desire to keep ancient arts and practices of all kinds alive.
Scrapbook’-like combinations of newspaper cuttings and photographs of the hairstyles, facial tracery and clothing that have influenced her personal style, as well as the development of Eusexua, including:
Images of ancient African and Egyptian sculptures, showing facial shapes, head-dresses and facial adornments that have influenced FKA twigs’ thinking and style.
3-D body and brain scans (the latter having influenced the delicate face etchings, developed with and traced by artist Naoko Scintu, that have become such an integral part of her own signature look).
‘Diary-like’ texts, explaining the genesis and evolution of the various components of Eusexua, for example:
Love is a practice – practice is loving your vessel. Moving is loving your body. Sway – arms by your side, lose feeling, sway and move your body.
My body is the same body I was in before anything happened to it.
THE ELEVEN by FKA twigs 14th–26th September 2024 Sotheby’s New Bond Street
The duration piece will involve a rotating group of ‘movers’ cast and trained by FKA twigs. The duration piece will begin at 10am and will conclude at 4.30pm on weekdays. On weekends, the piece will begin at 1pm through to 4:30pm.
SOTHEBY’S LATE Curated by FKA twigs Thursday 19th September – 6.30pm–9.30pm Sotheby’s New Bond Street
The evening will include music by DJ Neil Prescott, paid bar, movement workshop led by FKA twigs’ collective, with additional events including a panel discussion with Yinka Ilori, Gus Casely-Hayford (V&A East) and Sotheby’s specialist Hannah O’Leary, as well as a tour of photographer Erik Madagan Heck’s exhibition, ‘The Tapestry’.
INFO: Sothebys.com/FKAtwigs
The Eleven will be livestreamed from Sotheby’s galleries for the entire duration of the exhibition. Viewers can watch via fkatwi.gs or Sothebys.com/FKAtwigs
EUSEXUA: A Gesamtwerk
Beyond the durational piece that will be at the heart of the Sotheby’s experience, Eusexua is, for FKA twigs, a fully developed method of living that has been in the making for over five years.
An entire room at Sotheby’s will be devoted to the process by which Eusexua has come into being: the years of research and thinking that has gone into its development, all charted through the pages of FKA twigs’ personal sketchbook; an exhaustive series of polaroids chronicling the development of the eleven moves. Over the course of this period, FKA twigs’ devotion to complete creative freedom also extended to the way she dressed.
For an entire year, she wore simple yet beautiful pieces of clothing, developed in conjunction with her friend and collaborator Yaz XL, and developed with designer Camille Liu, and hand dyed in a particular shade of blue. Inspired by the simple elegance of Japanese attire, the garments allowed her freedom of movement and expression, and to focus on the internal rather than the external. This modular clothing system will be worn by the movers in the Sotheby’s event, and will also be available for purchase from January 2025.
Jordan Hemingway
FKA twigs’ partner, photographer and film director Jordan Hemingway, has played a critical role in the artistic production of the Eusexua project at Sotheby’s, directing the visuals, and producing for the event a series of 14 large-scale photographs of FKA twigs executing the moves she has developed. These will be displayed in a stand-alone gallery at Sotheby’s which will close out the visitor experience.
FKA twigs and Hemingway share a studio space in East London, a place to house their artistic practices and a home for the extended creative community that has been so critical to the evolution of Eusexua.
The Collective
Though the idea of Eusexua has been evolving in FKA twigs’ mind (and sketchbook) for over five years, the eleven moves at its heart have been developed over weeks of intense workshopping with fellow friends and creatives Frances Katz (leading movement assisting), Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava (movement assisting), and Meshach Henry, Freya Blom, Camille Liu, Yas XL, Tilda Mace and Louis Souvestre.
FKA twigs
FKA twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, is a British artist, singer, songwriter, dancer, director, and actress known for her innovative and genre- blending approach to music and art. Raised in an artistic household, FKA twigs was immersed in dance and music from a young age, studying opera and ballet, which laid the foundation for her multidisciplinary career.
She began her career as a dancer before shifting her focus to music and performance. FKA twigs released her debut EP, EP1, in 2012, followed by her critically acclaimed debut album LP1 in 2014, which earned a Mercury Prize nomination and established her as a powerful force in avant-pop and electronic music. Her second studio album, Magdalene, was released in 2019, and her latest music project, EUSEXUA, will be released later this month.
As a director, she has created work for Google Glass, Nike, Shiseido, and Calvin Klein, alongside her own music videos. In 2015, she presented a seven-day residency at the Manchester International Festival titled Soundtrack 7, where she created and rehearsed a new dance piece each day. In 2023, she created a self-portrait for the Art Fund’s The Wild Escape project, inspired by Diego Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus.
