COURTESY THE ARTIST
Multidisciplinary artist Kayla Guthrie released a video today for her self-released new single “Snowflake,” which features footage shot in Times Square, a red cowboy hat, corpse paint, and an ensemble cast including the artist Kembla Pfahler.
“The video was shot and directed on handheld camcorder by Milah Libin on the hottest day of the summer in August 2016,” Guthrie told ARTnews. Among the activities, she added: “Walking the fencing of the Navy Yard right before a huge thunderstorm and then on the roof of a building in Bushwick after the rain, dark clouds still mixing with the sunset.” The Times Square scenes feature a cast clad in clothing from Whatever 21 and jewelry from Arielle de Pinto, along with makeup and styling by Guthrie, who described the Times Square crew as “a doom generation posse gleaming and gloomy in the midnight sun of the Jumbotrons that never sleep and the crowds of sightseers with their vaguely hostile gaze.”
“Snowflake” gets its title from a poem that Novalis, an 18th-century Romantic poet, wrote after the death of his young fiancée. “The song opens with lines spoken from the poem,” Guthrie explained, “and layers lyrics over looping samples and digital effects processes, emotional truths that dissolve as they’re spoken—entrances to the void rather than conclusive ends.” Check out the video below and stream more of Guthrie’s sounds here.