FKA Twigs opens ‘self-healing’ exhibition The Eleven at Sotheby’s

Published

2 weeks ago

September 14, 2024

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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”.

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”.

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.

‘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.

‘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.”

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.

‘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.”

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.

UK

Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Published

3 hours ago

September 29, 2024

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Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Robert Jenrick has defended being handed a £75,000 donation from a company which had received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), despite criticising Labour over the freebies row.

Questions have been raised over the ultimate source of the funds from The Spott Fitness, which gave Mr Jenrick three separate £25,000 donations in July.

As first reported by Tortoise Media, the company received a loan from a firm based in the BVI.

The Tory leadership contender told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that The Spott Fitness “as I understand it… is a fitness company that operates in the UK”, and the donation was “perfectly legal and valid”.

Politics Live: Tory leadership candidates faced questions on Sky News

Mr Jenrick spoke to Sky News alongside the three other rivals to replace Rishi Sunak, as the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham kicks off.

During the interviews, Kemi Badenoch said she is a fighter and if someone takes a swing at her “I will swing back”.

Meanwhile, Tom Tugendhat defended his “posh boy public school background”, saying his military service has given him leadership skills, while former home secretary James Cleverly refused to name any of the previous four Tory prime ministers as being to blame for the party’s general election defeat, saying the public “don’t like infighting”.

Jenrick says donations ‘valid’

Asked about the donations from The Spott Fitness, which have been declared on his MPs’ register of interests, Mr Jenrick said: “As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK.

“It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way that one does with donations.”

Pressed for details on who owns the company and who works for it, the former immigration minister said this would be set out “on Companies House in the normal way” and he has “obviously met people who are involved in the company”.

“What people are criticising Labour for is actually rather different,” he added.

“Labour are being criticised for their rank hypocrisy that they spent years complaining about other political parties and then they’ve chosen to take off donors and cronies and to give passes to Number 10 in response.”

The Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week was overshadowed by a donation and freebies row, after it emerged Sir Keir Starmer accepted over £100,000 in gifts since 2019.

Questions have been raised in particular over the large amount given by Labour peer and TV executive Lord Alli, who had a pass to Number 10 for a short time in order to attend meetings, the government said.

The Conservatives are now gathering in Birmingham since their worst defeat at the ballot box in history at the July general election.

Jenrick backs ‘cast iron cap’ on migration

Mr Jenrick, currently the frontrunner to replace Mr Sunak, said his party made “serious mistakes” and failed to deliver.

He is pitching himself as a “change” candidate, telling Trevor Phillips he would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) in order to get the failed £700m Rwanda asylum scheme up and running, and introduce a cap on migration.

He said this would be different from previous commitments to introduce a limit as the cap would be “legally binding… cast in iron”, with the number set “in the tens of thousands or lower”.

Badenoch: ‘If you swing at me I will swing back’

Mr Jenrick faces competition on the right from Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister.

Speaking to Phillips, she defended an Op-ed in The Daily Telegraph in which she claimed there was a rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.

She said she was not referring to all Muslim immigrants “but there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two”.

The combative shadow housing secretary also insisted she does not go looking for fights when asked about her rows with the likes of Doctor Who star David Tennant, but that she will stand up for herself.

The North West Essex MP said: “I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me I will swing back but I don’t look for fights.”

She added: “I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest.”

‘Public don’t like bickering’

All four leadership contenders will make their case at the party conference this week, before another round of voting by MPs will reduce them to the final two, which the party membership will then vote on.

Mr Cleverly, who got the least votes of those remaining in the previous round, said his various cabinet roles in the past few years meant he has spent “more time promoting other people’s ideas” rather than his own – but that shows he is a “team player”.

He declined to name a prime minister who he blamed most for the party’s 2024 defeat but added: “I’ll tell you what the public told me they didn’t like – they didn’t like the constant infighting, they didn’t like the bickering.”

Mr Tugendhat asked the public to judge him on his own record, rather than his public schooling.

“I think that decisions I have made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you are looking at,” he said.

“I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

UK

Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

Published

3 hours ago

September 29, 2024

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Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

An eight-year-old boy has died after sustaining “serious” injuries to his head and face after being shot at a farm.

Cumbria Police said they are investigating the incident, and said they were called to the farm – in the Warcop area – at around 2.50pm on Saturday.

They said they received “a report that a child had been seriously injured by a firearm at the property” and that police and North West Ambulance Service attended.

“The firearm was secured at the scene by police and an eight-year-old boy was taken to hospital by air ambulance having suffered serious and life-threatening injuries to his head and face,” they said.

“Sadly, the boy has died overnight.”

Cumbria Police added officers arrested a man in his 60s at the scene on suspicion of assault GBH.

“He remains in police custody but is now under arrest on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter,” they said in a statement.

UK

Rosie Duffield ‘never thought’ she would quit Labour – but says Sir Keir Starmer ‘has problem with women’

Published

3 hours ago

September 29, 2024

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Rosie Duffield 'never thought' she would quit Labour - but says Sir Keir Starmer 'has problem with women'

Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said she never thought she would leave the party “in a million years” and suggested the prime minister has a “problem with women” after her resignation.

The Canterbury MP, who submitted a scathing resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday, told the BBC she is “desperately sorry” to those in her constituency who voted for Labour.

“It’s not at all where I wanted to be. I never thought in a million years I would leave this party,” she told the broadcaster late last night.

“I’m trying not to get upset… it’s in your soul and your heart, particularly someone like me.

“I’m from a very different background to Keir Starmer. I was a single mum who needed the Labour Party.

“It’s just so profoundly disappointing as a Labour voter and activist and a former recipient of tax credits in a low-paid job to see this is what we’ve become.”

Her resignation letter to the prime minister said she was “so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party”.

In the interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Duffield was asked if she thought Sir Keir “has a problem with women”.

She replied: “I’m afraid I do. I’ve experienced it myself.”

The now-independent MP said she and other female Labour backbenchers refer to “the young men who surround” Sir Keir as “the lads”.

“It’s very clear that the lads are in charge,” she added.

“They’ve now got their Downing Street passes and they’re the same ones briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs.”

Her resignation letter specifically criticised Sir Keir’s treatment of Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott as “deeply shameful” after her long-term suspension.

Reacting to Ms Duffield’s resignation on Sky News, Labour minister Pat McFadden said he “regrets” her decision, but added: “It’s probably not a secret that she’s been unhappy for some time.”

On questions of “sleaze” that relate to Sky News revelations of the prime minister receiving more freebies than any other MP, he said he “wouldn’t characterise it in the way that Rosie has” and that there was “no public money involved”.

He also said he is “not ashamed of the party” and that “government is always tough” in light of Labour’s decision to cut winter fuel payments for thousands of pensioners.

Starmer ‘hasn’t actually explained’

Ms Duffield told Kuenssberg Labour’s three months in power has been “mass hypocrisy” she “can’t be part of”.

“It’s greed,” she said. “Why else would someone on so much more money than most people get free gifts? He can absolutely afford his own clothes – we all can.”

She said Sir Keir “hasn’t answered” or “actually explained” the situation.

In response to the revelations on his donations, he said: “Wherever there are gifts from anyone, I’m going to comply with the rules.

“It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election. I reinforced it after the election. And that’s why shortly after the election, my team reached out for advice on what declarations should be made so it’s in accordance with the rules.

“They then sought out for further advice more recently, as a result of which they’ve made the relevant declarations.”