FKA Twigs says her latest work – a live performance piece at Sotheby’s – is part of her “huge and healing journey” over the last few years, in which she’s learned “how to use and live in my body again”.
The 36-year-old singer and actress opened her first major exhibition on Saturday, the day after her third album – Eusexua – dropped.
It’s a decade since the Cheltenham-born star – real name Tahliah Barnett – released LP1, and a world away from her first professional gigs as a backing dancer for stars including Kylie Minogue and Jessie J.
Described as “a physical and artistic quest for self-healing”, The Eleven comprises a rotating group of 11 “movers”, cycling through 11 ritualised motions that each last 11 minutes and are designed to improve your life.
Each addresses an issue with modern living, including our relationship with technology, simplifying our lives and self-awareness.
For example, if you’re suffering from screen addiction, the first part of a ritual might demand rubbing your hand when you discover that instead of being in the moment you are itching to check Instagram on your phone.
Or if you’ve got personal traits you want to fix, you might “take two hours out on a Saturday to think, ‘Oh, why do I get angry when I stand in a queue in Sainsbury’s?’ You know it’s not because of the queue”.
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She tells Sky News she choreographed the project to “create a sense of calm, and to just gain more control over my life so that I can concentrate on the things of beautiful and wild and free and not get bogged down with all of the noise”.
Twigs, who studied opera and ballet from a young age, will take part in some performances, which will also feature a revolving cast of “special guests”.
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It’s not only a first for Twigs, but also for Sotheby’s, as the first piece of live performance art in the London gallery’s 280-year history.
Image: Pic: Jordan Pettitt/PA
‘I’m a wild-rooted, earthy woman’
Twigs cites Madonna, Tracey Emin (her pen pal as a teen) and Serbian conceptual artist Marina Abramovic as three of her muses, adding: “In the last two years, as I am a grown-up now, I’ve really looked to these women just to encourage me to keep going and get my message out there.”
Twigs explains: “There have been so many women that have just created something so much bigger than themselves, and they haven’t given up, and they’ve kept on going and they’ve ignored the naysayers.”
Her work is also inspired by her own life, rich pickings for the star who says: “I feel like I could get 10 albums just out of my life and from [ages] 16 to 18 if I just sat down and really thought about it.”
She says she only wore a certain shade of blue in the year she was writing the album (“a worn Japanese blue” according to the star) and created “a modular wardrobe” along with collaborator Yaz XL to sit alongside the project and “take the stress of looking good out of your life”.
One thing Twigs is clear hasn’t inspired the exhibition’s message is the California wellness trends so popular with celebrities and millionaires.
She says: “I’m half Jamaican from a single-parent working-class family. So, I don’t really know of those Californian things too much. I’ve just made it from my life experience and I’m a wild-rooted, earthy woman.”
The exhibition includes intimate photographs and Polaroids taken by Twigs’s partner, photographer Jordan Hemingway, who she lives with in east London.
Image: Twigs with her partner, photographer Jordan Hemingway. Pic: PA
‘It’s about touching, slapping and holding yourself’
Twigs says rather than seeing the images as revealing, she sees them as “true”, adding: “I don’t really see my body in that way. Revealing or not revealing, I’d probably feel more awkward in an outfit I didn’t like, you know?“
The star goes on:“Over the past few years, I’ve been on a huge healing journey and, have had to learn how to use and how to live in my body again.”
She says one message of the show is shrugging off body hang-ups: “It’s about touching yourself and slapping yourself and holding yourself and moving in a way that just gets rid of all inhibitions.
“It’s about realising that we’re in our vessels and we can take control of them… Express ourselves. It’s raw and it’s wild and it’s ugly. And in that way, it’s perfect.”
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It’s been a challenging few years for the singer, filing papers to sue her former partner Shia LaBeouf over alleged abuse four years ago, next month will see the case finally come to court in LA.
Twigs says the 38-year-old Hollywood star physically and emotionally abused her during their year-long relationship.
LaBeouf has denied the claims but apologised for the hurt he has caused.
Image: Twigs has been inspired by ‘strong’ women. Pic: Aidan Zamiri/ Ivor Novello Awards
‘Sistah Space feels like home’
With one in four women suffering domestic abuse during their lifetime, it’s a reality Twigs feels needs to be addressed.
As an ambassador for Sistah Space, a UK charity supporting African and Caribbean heritage women affected by domestic and sexual abuse, Twigs says she has found strength from the “strong women” around her.
Twigs explains: “I think that domestic violence and interpersonal relationship violence is a really misunderstood subject, and I think it can be even more complicated when you’re of colour and from different cultures.
“Sistah Space is an amazing organisation that helps support women and survivors, find their voice again, find their feet again after going through something really horrific. Sistah Space feels like home to me.
“I spoke to Ngosi [Fulani, the founder of Sistah Space] today on the way here, actually. And all of these incredibly strong women really inspired me to make this work and to keep going and to have tenacity and strength and all of these things to carry on and fight through in my own journey.”
Image: Twigs with actor Bill Skarsgard in The Crow reboot. Pic: Lionsgate
Eusexua
The exhibition ties in with Twigs’s new album Eusexua – a “Twigism” coined by the star summing up that lightbulb moment when things just click.
With a new album out, a film out in the UK next month (the reboot of cult classic The Crow opposite Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard) and filming another, plus this exhibition, there’s no denying it’s an exciting year for the star.
But with her feet firmly on the ground, Twigs is just happy to be sharing her work with the world.
She sums up: “I feel like I’ve always kept myself very busy and I really love what I do and I love expressing myself and I love the arts and I’m just really grateful for all the opportunities to get them out there into the world.”
The Eleven is at Sotheby’s in London from Saturday 14 to Thursday 26 September and is free to view.
FKA Twig’s third studio album, Eusexua, is out now.
Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.
The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.
Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
Image: Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.
He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Image: Pic: Met Police
Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
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Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.
An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.
Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.
A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.
Image: Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames
Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.
He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.
He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”
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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”
On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.
When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.
Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.
Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment.
A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.
But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.
The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.
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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.
Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.
The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.
“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.
“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”
Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.
It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.
“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”
The review will mean:
• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion
• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves
• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth
Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.
“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”
However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.