The Creators Project has released a behind-the-scenes interview with pop artist, director and highly evolved alien FKA Twigs. Dressed down, soft-spoken and often funny, she reveals the ideas behind some of her jaw-droppingly strange and beautiful videos (see: "Pendulum" and "Glass & Patron"). Below, a handful of our favorite quotes from the interview.
On deciding to direct
"I've spoken before about the 'man's-eye view' that you get in a camera... that you can want something to be portrayed in one way and then with a man's-eye view, or with an eye that's not in touch emotionally with what you're trying to say, a video can come out completely differently -- just because of the camera angle."
On getting tied up in the "Pendulum" video
"You can only be tied up for seven minutes at a time. It's really annoying, because you want to do it, and then if you lose circulation in your arm for too much you can have a numb arm for six months. So I was just trying to get the balance between being dedicated and getting the shot, and not losing sensation in my arm. So that was fun."
On moms and cats
"My mum just let me do whatever I wanted to do in terms of being creative when I was I child. If I wanted to be a cat for the weekend, I could just be a cat, and that was cool."
On giving birth to several yards of colorful fabric in the back of a van for the "Glass & Patron" video
"The idea came from looking at a lot of young girls now, in modern society, and seeing what makes girls feels beautiful and what men seem to find attractive. Obviously, you can have a big boob -- a big boob, it's a singular one... You can have big boobs or a big butt or big thighs, but for me, if I'm on a tube and I see a pregnant woman get on, I always can't stop staring. That's so incredible to think that women can grow something inside their bodies. It's something that's not spoken about that much, especially not in terms of a woman being sexy or being beautiful or feeling powerful or feeling empowered in what she can do with her body. I wanted to feel what it would be like to feel sexy with a baby bump."
On being understood
"With my my profile growing, it enters into a world of people who don't understand me and they're never going to understand me and I don't expect them to understand me and I don't want them to understand me. That's also OK, and in a way, quite exciting as well -- to have it spread into a place where it shouldn't really go and yet it's there and it feels nice...
"I quite enjoy it when people don't get it."