In a letter to her fanbase, one of our favourite artists, ANOHNI speaks about her latest release. Here is some insight from ANOHNI directly, with regards to the heart-stopping visual collaboration with legendary photographer and filmmaker Tim Walker for ONE with Hercules & Love Affair.
We deeply appreciate the perspective on animal rights, and the intersection of how speciesism is the root of all oppression. A much needed message.
From ANOHNI:
The lead performer is Salvia, a London icon who I have long admired. She is friends with Johanna Constantine, and that was how I first became aware of her work. I am so moved with the result of their collaboration with choreographer Lewis Walker, and the fantastic production crew headed by Tim Walker and Truro Productions.
When Tim and I were talking about this project we realized we shared in common a childhood love of the book Masquarade by Kit Williams. There is a trace of that magic in Tim’s film for ONE. Salvia is a warrior of beauty, and her future form means everything to me.
I feel a strong connection to this song, and to all the songs on In Amber, which was released quietly this year. I co-wrote half the songs, so a fair bit of the album is in my voice. Andy Butler’s songs are some of his strongest and most compelling yet, in my view.
Hope is a feeling, and feelings are not facts. At the end of the day, a feeling won’t change the circumstances we are up against. All that matters is what we actually do. The weather is changing profoundly, as we all know. Now is the time to rise up. Remaining populations of wild animals are collapsing, forest systems are collapsing, droughts and boiling temperatures across the world are causing terrible damage. I am not seduced by the need for “hope” as a prerequisite for functioning effectively. I try to hold space for the suffering animals in factory farms across Europe and America. Over 90 percent of animals by body mass are enslaved to human industry. I dont want to be afraid to empathize with their suffering. Perhaps this is a queer perspective, one harder to understand for those who require the constant maintainance of the illusion of hope in order to justifying their commitment to reproduction. I am lucky to be trans and queer and utterly not a part of that trajectory, so perhaps I am priviledged to allow myself to feel without such policing of “hope”. I guess I prefer reality to hope.
My interest is in grasping realistically what remaining agency we have, and endeavoring to remain present and not burrow into some kind of denial. For hope without honestly can be a kind of denial.
Salvia is doing something profound for me that fills me with joy. She is a blessed one and a shamanic figure.I just thank the whole crew from the bottom of my heart for putting this epic, heartfelt work together, and breathing visual life into our song. The video is resonant with transresistance, transeuphoria, feral androgyny, resilience, a deep connection to the primordial feminine… all the things I most treasure. It reminds me of Chloe Dzubilo, or the Sylvia RIvera. Salvia enacts a battle cry in this video, in response to traumatic conditions, and wears a certain perfume of brutal “hope”.