Back in 2011 when the US state of Georgia was having difficulty obtaining sodium thiopental, one of the three drugs used for legal executions, the state decided it would be a good idea to purchase it from a UK company operating out of the back of a driving school in London. While that might not be the subtext FKA twigs and director Kahlil Joseph intended for “Video Girl“‘s surreal prison drama, the metaphor rich short film does revolve around the lethal injection of FKA twigs’ lover/victim in this video. Like some sort of spectral shape shifter, the artist moves effortlessly between being the helpless by-stander, watching from behind a one way mirror as her lover is put to death, to being that prisoners’ sadomasochistic executioner. In a recent interview with Pitchfork twigs claimed that part of the impetus behind this track was a strong self-declaration that she was no longer just a back-up dancer, merely “that girl in the video”, and that almost “violent” assertion of identity eerily animates her role, here, as femme fatale. Filmed in striking black and white, and contrasting gritty, warped shots with lucid, filmic imagery, “Video Girl”‘s most charged, and strangely beautiful moment comes near the end when her lover/prisoner lies dying on the execution table, and with a microphone hanging above him she climbs on, straddling his almost lifeless body while reaching for the microphone as she watches herself in the execution room’s one way mirror. Plenty to unpack, here!
FKA twigs’ “Video Girl” is off her outstanding debut album LP1, out now via Young Turks.
