THE LATEST IN UNEXPECTED LINK UPS: FKA TWIGS & THE WOOLMARK PRIZE

by Stella Hughes 1 year ago

by Stella Hughes 1 year ago 4min

If there’s one thing we know about FKA Twigs, it’s that she’s going to put her all into her work. Which has been proven twice over this year already. Collaborating with the International Woolmark Prize to produce a new short film, we see Twigs direct and feature in the piece, which celebrates the art of play.

The International Woolmark Prize has been celebrating designers who use fabrics and textiles innovatively, selecting finalists to be appraised by a star-studded panel of judges and ultimately providing sponsorship, mentorship and international acclaim to the winner. For this year though, the Prize is doing something extra: celebrating the finalists work in this new short film and experience.

Entitled ‘PLAYSCAPE’, the film does what it says on the tin: exemplifies the art of play through considered choreography. Throughout, we see collection looks from this year’s finalists Ahluwalia, EGONLAB, Jordan Dalah, MMUSOMAXWELL, Peter Do, RUI and Saul Nash, ahead of the winner being announced during a live event in London on April 26th.

Aside from being a great theme to showcase the shortlisted collections, the film’s theme pays homage to the Prize’s central focus this year: play as a mode of creative exploration. Creating an immersive experience with this endeavour, PLAYSCAPE encompasses a film, a showroom and special partnership with The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum.

Sculptor Isamu Noguchi constructed playgrounds that offered “a radical potential for physical and social interaction”. He designed several ‘playscapes’ where the public could directly interact with sculptures in ways typically not possible in a museum – making the case for this partnership make all the more sense.

For her role in the proceedings, FKA twigs developed an exploration of play within creativity, citing it as “a method in which the purest expression has a space to be birthed, and happy accidents are embraced and elevated”. Featuring and directed by the creative, the short film merges influences from fashion, art, dance, and music -opening with an empty gallery of Noguchi’s play sculptures, which becomes populated by a diverse ensemble cast of characters.

By the time we get to the second part of the film, influences begin to converge and we see ‘real’ ousted for ‘imaginary’. Ballet sensibility is combined with elements drawn from hip-hop, modernism, contemporary dance and punk aesthetics. Guest appearances by Kai-Isaiah Jamal, Kiddy Smile and Princess Julia bring the designers’ collections to life. Check out the film here: