New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Los Angeles-based ANIIML has premiered a video for their new single,"SLAY!" today. Directed, shot and edited entirely by frontwoman/songwriter Lila Rose, the vibe is dark, visceral, avant-garde, with an intentional lo-fi, 8mm aesthetic, shot entirely on her iPhone. The "SLAY!" video is a literal proclamation of independence and freedom, and while only premiering just today it is already banned on social media outlets, simply for displaying skin, and using it as an artistic medium.
Discussing the ban, Lila stated, I see myself as a performance artist who uses the body as her main canvass. I see the body as the most beautiful, most controversial, and yet most basic piece of art we are given to create with and from. As soon as you put clothing onto this human form, you imply some other meaning. It directs your mind towards something other than this animal form. My sexuality is my private business, but when it comes to making art, all of that disappears. This is about making something beyond sexuality. It's about a message, a meaning, and the willingness to show up regardless of peoples' obvious misconstrued analysis and understanding of said art.
By taking control of my video art, I set myself free from some very difficult scenarios in a heavily male dominated industry. This was one of the last pieces of my business (ANIIML), which I needed to be able to reclaim and recover, in order to be able to feel free... which is why it's comical that it was banned. Freedom is... subjective.
After the release of her 2017 single, "IT'S OVER" (which has over a million views), Lila found herself in need of some personal recovery time due to her real life experience connected to the subject matter of that song and video. After having reemerged from her own healing, she found herself wanting her next piece to be about finding that strength on the other side of a very difficult time in life.
Filmed at night over the period of a month, using only candles as her light source, the video features several of Lila's friends and members of ANIIML as the "keepers of darkness," whom Lila finds scattered throughout her backyard.
About the video, Lila stated... "I'm a hunter for the darkness," means I hunt the feelings, experiences, and thoughts of the dark parts of life in order to excavate the gems from their depths, and to create beauty/art out of them. My experience with art-making has traditionally been that I delve into a difficult situation in life (my own, or someone else), and feel all the pains of that place, and write from there. Through this adventure into the depths of darkness, we find these creative "spirits" who hold these "gems of creativity" within them. We excavate these gems plant them in the soils of our inner worlds, to bring new life from those sorrows. That new life is art.
In the case of this video, we excavate the gems from the core of the "keepers of the darkness," plant them, and the place from which they came sprouts new life. Once the flowers have sprouted, the keepers of the darkness have been given life and freedom. And of course, by following that process, I myself have my own inner transformation, which is when I birth a flower out of my own body, and go through the metamorphosis into one of the keepers of the darkness myself. And the cycle continues.
ANIIML will celebrate the release of the "SLAY!" video tonight in Los Angeles with a performance at School Night at The Bardot.
