‘I’m encouraged by Marina Abramović’: FKA twigs takes over Sotheby’s

The zeitgeisty musician FKA twigs is shaking up Sotheby’s in London over the next fortnight with a durational piece entitled The Eleven (14-26 September), comprising a rotating group of 11 “movers” who engage in a transfixing series of physical mantras reflecting 11 wellbeing "pillars". The UK singer launched the piece today in the hallowed walls of the historic auction house. But why Sotheby’s when she could have her pick of art world venues? “It’s the perfect space—full of works by the great masters I studied and loved,” she says in a statement. “At the same time, there’s something subversive about birthing my piece in such an established institution.”

Visitors can pop along to New Bond Street and see the performance for free (note: it’s non-ticketed and will be live streamed), while also taking in FKA twigs’s sketchbooks, drawings and polaroids documenting the process behind the marathon durational work and her new album, Eusexua. “The work is rather like a gesamtwerk [a multidisciplinary ‘total’ work of art],” said Lisa Stevenson, Sotheby’s contemporary art specialist, pointing to the creative collaboration with the photographer Jordan Hemingway, FKA twigs’s partner, who has produced 14 large-scale images showing the moves at the heart of The Eleven. The project is not linked to a Sotheby's sale.

At a press briefing, the singer spilled the beans on why she made the piece, explaining her concerns about how "culture has gone into screens or algorithms… through that confusion I wanted to root myself again and develop a child-like sense of wonder”. Asked whether she collected art, she said: “No, I wouldn’t say so; I live very humbly… but maybe one day.”

And as an avid fan of Tracey Emin, has she invited the queen of Margate to Sotheby’s? “Not personally—I don’t know how to get in touch with her but it’s OK,” she said. “I’m inspired by people’s tenacity… I’m encouraged by Marina [Abramović’s] tenacity, by Madonna’s tenacity, Tracey Emin’s… they haven’t given up, they’ve kept going.”