Sia Furler, the blonde-wigged music powerhouse behind “Chandelier” and “Breathe Me,” released yet another polarizing music video.
“Elastic Heart,” which is featured on the “Hunger Games: MockingJay” soundtrack, offers up a striking video starring method actor Shia LaBeouf and tiny dancer (S/O to homie Elton John) Maddie Ziegler. The duo captivates and confuses as they dance manically in some nude undergarment/bandage visage, all the while held captive in an oversized birdcage.
The whole thing is, well, strange. But the exhibition of sincerity and oddness kept me tangled in a way only absurdist Youtube videos can.
Via: The Independent
Initially, I was perplexed.
The cage, the clothing, the frenzied energy — it all confused me. By the end however, it was the performers who monopolized my attention. Ziegler, the 12-year-old dancer extraordinaire from Sia’s earlier “Chandelier” video radiates her brazen personality again in “Elastic Heart.”
But what’s the foundation for Sia’s fascination with the young dancer? And more pressingly, what about Shia LaBeouf? Immediately, I register LaBeouf as the intense child star actor known for playing Louis Stevens, extreme in his dedication to his roles and irrational in his public behavior. Disney male/female counterparts notwithstanding, that isn’t your typical recipe for music-video vixen.
So I pondered.
Why does Sia incorporate the young girl in her music videos? Donned in Furler’s classic blonde wig, I believe Ziegler serves a dual purpose: a shield for Sia’s identity, as well as a representation of younger perhaps less jaded version of herself.
Via: NY Daily News
But what connects Sia and LaBeouf? Well, besides the single letter discerning their difference in names, it may be the ostensible value they find in anonymity. Sia demonstrates her desire to reject celebrity through stand-in performers like Lena Dunham and Ziegler. She performs, yes, but back aimed towards the audience, with a proxy taking center stage.
LaBeouf also chooses a less conventional handling of fame. In a publicity stunt at the “Nymphomaniac” premiere last February, he rocked a paper bag over his head, marked in black ink.
“I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE,” it said, signifying the commencement of a most holy anti-fame crusade.
As it seems, LaBeouf’s actions are not a far cry from Sia’s relationship with the press. In her October 2013 cover of Billboard Magazine, she, too, is photographed with a paper bag atop her head. The cover heralds her massive musical achievements followed by “…and [she] doesn’t want to be famous.”
Her Billboard article speaks to her indignation for fame.
“Imagine the stereotypical highly opinionated, completely uninformed mother-in-law character and apply it to every teenager with a computer in the entire world,” the article said. “Then add in all bored people, as well as people whose job it is to report on celebrities. Then, picture that creature, that force, criticizing you for an hour straight once a day, every day, day after day.”
Via: Slate
Thus the collaboration of two outspokenly anti-celebrity celebrities becomes logical. In that regard, it may be fair view the music video as a manifestation of their shared sentiment. The two are overcome and restricted within a cage both literally and metaphorically perhaps in response to the repressive nature of fame. We can view Ziegler as Sia’s surrogate –- a human paper bag shielding Sia’s identity.
In a dance of rage and vulnerability, choreographed by Ryan Heffington and directed by Daniel Askill, both “Sia” and Shia are trapped, left to erupt in desperate anger.
Eventually, they succumb and seek refuge in each other. But where Ziegler wedges her youthful self out, freeing herself from the confines of the cage, or of fame, LeBeouf is not so fortunate. I find this may speak to Sia’s success in avoiding much of the infamy Shia battled with.
In another light, Ziegler and LeBeouf may represent the ghosts of child star past and present. Fame at an early age can have emotionally destructive consequences. Shia suffering those side effects is debatable; however it is clear he feels some way on the issue. But what about the inevitable celebrity of the growing Ms. Ziegler? I imagine Sia believes Ziegler is capable as well as young enough to wedge herself out of that world if she’s so inclined.
Via: Spraggett on Chess
So just as the music video mystifies, the general idea of celebrity is similarly bizarre. What is the basis for celebrity after all? How fundamentally odd it is to be talking about the intimates of a human being we’ve never met. Why do we as a society hold such stock in the lives and petty details regarding these performers? Do we romantically elevate their glamorous lives just to tear them down at the first sight of their cellulite in a bikini?
Whether its catharsis, jealousy, envy or insanity, the fact of the matter is it sells.
The answer might just be one of those fun arbitrary evolutionary side effects of being a social cousin to the chimp with access to the globalizing force of the Internet (and opposable thumbs).
Feature photo courtesy of: MuuMuse
