FKA Twigs’ passion for contemporary art is certainly not new. The British singer-songwriter, musician, and dancer, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, has long drawn inspiration from visual art.
Her second album, titled MAGDALENE (2019), for example, was explicitly influenced by the famous painting of the same name by Artemisia Gentileschi.
However, FKA’s first encounter with art dates back many years earlier when, at the age of nineteen, she began a correspondence with Tracey Emin following a chance meeting. This exchange led to the creation of My Bed, the title referencing the work for which Emin was nominated for the Turner Prize. She also attended the Marina Abramović Institute and, in 2021, filmed the music video for Don't Judge Me in the iconic Turbine Hall of Tate Modern.
This September, FKA Twigs captivated audiences with “The Eleven,” a durational performance piece presented by Sotheby’s that explores the relationship between movement and healing.
It is precisely her tendency to aspire to a “gesamtkunstwerk,” or total work of art, that has made her the multifaceted and fascinating artist we know today. But what happens if this time FKA decides to embody the artwork? The object of interest is the renowned "Green Table Sculpture" by Allen Jones, a standout piece of the British Pop movement, known for its provocative nature.
The “Green Table” consists of a woman figure kneeling and resting on her hands, supporting a glass top on her back, serving the function that a table's legs would typically fulfill.
Initially, I wasn't interested in what the figure was doing. I just wanted a statuary presence, like the Caryatids of Athens. Then I realized they could still be interpreted as a kind of found object, a display mannequin, so I decided to make the sculpture appear as if it had a function, hence Table (1969) and Chair (1969).
Allen Jones
Jones' work has always tackled themes of fetishism, sexuality, gender, and psyche through a distinctly surrealist lens. In particular, the series composed of Chair,Table, and Hatstand, also known as “Furniture,” has sparked heated debates in the past: the women depicted are modeled after the wax figures of Madame Tussauds, dressed in fetish clothing and transformed into design objects that oscillate between pure utility and decoration.
FKA Twigs is portrayed as the table in her new video “Perfect Stranger,” directed by Jordan Hemingway, featuring cameos by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Yves Tumor.
The single, part of an album infused with rave influences, reflects on the fleeting attraction to strangers encountered on the dance floor—ideal figures that represent a sense of freedom and lightness, devoid of any history or emotional complications.
Thus, the video amplifies the theme of the dance floor as a space for sexual liberation, where everyone can assume a different identity, free from the roles and daily expectations. By incorporating the Green Table among the various BDSM practices represented, FKA Twigs and director Jordan Hemingway legitimize it as one of many possible fantasies.
The evocative aesthetic choice redeems the work from the misogynistic imagery to which it has long been tied, inviting us to explore it as a tool for the liberated acceptance of one's pleasure. It's a bold and inclusive statement that seems to remind us: “What is beautiful is not what is conventionally beautiful, but what pleases,” as long as it pleases both parties.