Floria Sigismondi
Floria Sigismondi’s artistic visuals are disturbing and does not follow the mainstream of photography most artists strive for. She is known for incorporating many of her bizarre characters into most of her work, playing with the minds of the audience with the terrifying yet intriguing characters. She states that her work is mostly influenced by her subconscious, similar to the strange dolls of Hans Bellmer, films of Frederico Fellini, animations of the Quay btothers and the works of David Lynch. She started of as a photographer but moved into film and directing while also continuing to stay in touch with her photography by photographing the work she directs. Most of her art making practice includes getting into touch with her subconscious and allowing her imagination to take over, this is evident in the music ‘Beautiful People’ produced by Marilyn Manson and directed by Floria Sigismondi.
Floria Sigismondi is always described to have her own world of darkness full of bizarre characters. A distinctive style that makes her unique and easily recognisable. This style was fostered from her two very supportive parents, Lina and Domenico Sigismondi, they had splashed her childhood with colour by applauding all her creative ambitions and allowing her to pursue her passions. She had described her parents as the type to declare with pride that she was an artist when she had only scribbled on a piece of paper. Sigismondi had the freedom to explore what she wanted and that led to her development of her own style early on. Her parents were both Italian Opera singers, they had moved from Italy to Canada when Sigismondi was 2. Floria Sigismondi was born in Pescara, Italy in 1965. When her family could finally afford to pay a trip to Italy Sigismondi discovered where her fascination for the old and decaying lay, in Italy. She stated in an interview, ‘Italy has so much history, so much of the ancient Rome is in ruins around you’. She believes that destruction will lead to discovery of new things. She sees herself as an experimentalist.
Sigismondi had studied painting and illustration at the Ontario College of Art in Canada, 1987. Then she graduated with a degree in photography and started a career in fashion photography. It wasn’t much later when she made a smooth transition to directing film when a production company, The Revolver film Co. approached her. Most of the photographs she took would turn into series that depicted a story instead of the mainstream where one solid image is presented. Her work is full of the contemporary as she had directed music videos for Pink, The White Stripes, Christina Auguilera, Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding, Justin Timberlake and Marilyn Manson. Her inspiration comes from a wide range of material that she find in her subconscious and life experiences. She creates her work to be able to learn about herself and what that’s around her. She likes to think of the works she completed as actually having a life, she likes to think that they draw in the reactions of their audience, making them even more intricate and powerful.
ABOUT
"Beautiful People" Directed by Floria Sigismondi
Self Portrait With Cat
121.9 x 162.6
Floria Sigismondi
Born on 1965, Italian
This self portrait was taken in 1998 and it depicts what Floria Sigismondi held important to herself as well as what she represents. There is a resemblance to Leonardo Da Vinci’s oil painting of 'Lady with Ermine’.
Her choice of clothing and colour is dark and gives off a romantic feel. It also is a reference to her Italian heritage with the theatrical emphasis of the rich colours. She had grown up surrounded by and an Opera theatrical style that she incorporates this into her portrait, making a close connection to how crucial her parents were to her and her passions.
The cat she is holding symbolises things getting done swiftly and being independent with slight touch of mystery and magic. The clothes are gothic chic and it shows just how different females are now compared to Leonardo Da Vinci’s time. She created much sharper lines and angles compared to Da Vinci’s more soft approach making her appear to hold power and superiority. This is a very contemporary touch as Sigismondi is a woman and women used to be denied of the same rights men held right to until women were given a taste as to what they were missing out on and they decided to have a women’s movement that is still very big today but has changed women’s lives in a huge way. When Sigismondi photographing, she doesn’t see the difference from being a painter as she drew inspiration for this portrait from a painting instead a photograph.
Sigismondi places this portrait right into the postmodern context where she is expressing how much the gender roles have changed through her art, especially by comparing her portrait to Leonardo Da Vinci’s work of a powerless lady.
Self Portrait With Cat
The photographs to the right is from the music video ‘Beautiful People’, a song by Marilyn Manson, directed by Floria Sigismondi in 1996. Sigismondi is most found directing music videos for the rock genre of songs.
When Floria Sigismondi directs music videos, she listens to the song again and again until she has it embedded into her mind. She then continues on with what she has to do, letting ideas come to her along the way instead of chasing after them. She speaks of the ideas she gets as if they are actual people who are on their way to greet her and allow her to showcase them in the way she sees right. Her film-making and photography techniques with lighting and colour choices don’t differ by much. She’s always experimenting with the surreal and characters who seem to have crawled out of horror movies. They have disproportioned bodies and strange body movements.
Lady With Ermine
Leonardo Da Vinci
Floria Sigismondi photographed
with her
daughter
These characters are the most recognised aspect of Sigismondi’s work apart from her jittery camerawork with dark but rich colours. The characters draw the audience into Sigismondi’s work, they become fascinated by the horrors that pulse out of them but are also curious to learn more about them. Floria Sigismondi has also said that the environment she does her filming or photography in is as important as the props or people. She feels like the environment becomes a character in itself.
“Beautiful People” had many dark and mysterious characters but the environment suited them too. The characters were meant to attribute to the meaning of the song where Marilyn Manson is singing about beautiful people and these characters fill the view as the ‘beautiful people’, it goes against society’s views of beauty and makes the audience question their views on who is beautiful and who is not.
This music video brought Floria Sigismondi into the fame light with her unique styles and how she had accurately captured what Marilyn Manson was trying to express through his song. Her style was what that made many more artists come to her for their future music videos.
"Blue Orchid"
Directed by Floria Sigismondi
Floria Sigismondi directed “Blue Orchid” by the White Stripes in 2005. It’s full of her jittery camerawork and fast cuts where the audience’s mind races to keep up with her pace. It is also full of her bizarre characters.
There is a girl dressed up in a white dress and white ballet shoes that is later revealed to be a death trap as it had heels to keep the feet pointed. She is shown struggling to walk in it, creating strange body movements as she tries to walk. The audience feels uncomfortable watching, unable to ease the girl’s pain.
The setting of the whole film was in an abandoned mansion with a damaged grand piano and scattered with tattered furniture. The place is in ruins, they add to the dark and mysterious world Sigismondi is obsessed with.
Floria Sigismondi did not stray too far in her process of art making when coming up with an idea. Just like the
‘Beautiful People’, Sigismondi had listened to the song over and over again until it was embedded into her subconscious before moving on with her life and letting the ideas come to her. What that did come to her was her usual distinctive style of a world that she shows vividly through her directing.
Near the end, the girl in the ballet shoes is about to be stomped on by a white horse but Floria Sigismondi lets the video fade to black, keeping the audience in suspension as to whether the girl survived or not. This shows how much Floria Sigismondi plays with the idea of destruction.
Floria Sigismondi is a director who has found her own unique style and is continuously improving as time passes. She is easily recognisable and unforgettable with her worlds of intriguing, terrifyingly bizarre characters.
