FKA twigs Performs Healing Mantras at Sotheby’s London

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FKA twigs debuted a new artwork at Sotheby’s over the weekend.

Named for the way her joints crack, twigs is the creator of albums MAGDALENE (2019) and CAPRISONGS (2022), and an actor, alongside Bill Skarsgård, in the 2024 remake of The Crow. She began her career as a dancer, and movement is at the heart of her new artwork, The Eleven (2024), on show at Sotheby’s New Bond Street galleries through 26 September.

Performed by FKA twigs and a rotating group of 11 ‘movers’, the work takes its name from 11 aspects of life essential to her quality of life. ‘Crone’, for instance, is her relationship to technology, ‘Minestate’ is her opinion of herself, and ‘Eusexua Body’ refers to movement.

These aspects are expressed through different mantras, each performed for 11 minutes, that evolve as the movers become more and more fatigued.

‘It’s about exploring these feelings until you feel exhausted and then pushing through and finding a new point of view,’ FKA twigs said in a statement.

Sotheby’s will illustrate how the work was conceived and developed through 14 large format photographs by her partner, Jordan Hemingway, and sketchbooks that include drawings, clippings, and Labanotation.

Sotheby’s might seem like a strange venue for the performance, but FKA twigs described it as ‘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.’

Cécile Bernard, Sotheby’s Managing Director, EMEA, said, ‘after 280 years in business, what keeps the flame alive is continuing to open our doors to new forms of creative expression.’

Visual art has long been an inspiration for FKA twigs. MAGDALENE was inspired by Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting of the same name. She struck up a correspondence with Tracey Emin after writing the song ‘My Bed’ at age 19, spent time at the Marina Abramović Institute, and filmed the music video for ‘Don’t Judge Me’ in Tate Modern‘s Turbine Hall.

Alongside the debut of The Eleven, FKA twigs released her first single in four years, ‘Eusexua’, off her forthcoming album EUSEXUA. The album was influenced by the underground techno scene in Prague, where she spent time filming The Crow.

She described Eusexua as ‘that feeling of when you’ve been dancing all night and you lose seven hours to music’. —[O]

Main image: FKA twigs and performers in The Eleven (2024). Courtesy Sotheby's.