“‘When she performs, she chooses not to face the camera, but believe me, this is her singing live,’ announced Ellen in her introduction of Sia’s performance, accompanied by the faceless cover of the Aussie artist’s forthcoming album, 1000 Forms of Fear.
According to Sia, whose hits include Clap Your Hands and Breathe Me, the decision to shy away from the audience is in an effort to protect her mental health. The artist has never been secretive about her battle with painkiller addiction and alcoholism, disclosing all in an interview with Billboard last year (she covered the same issue with a paper bag over her head).
But is her attempt at fleeing the limelight thrusting her straight into it? Will it start a Bruce Wayne style obsession with unmasking the real Sia? Or is this a bold statement by an artist wanting to be judged by merits alone?
Daft Punk have successfully paved a masked empire…”
There is something to be said about how, when the Entertainer distances themselves from the Audience, the Audience can better focus on the Art, and therefore the Entertainer remembers what it is like being an Artist. For there is no Art without the Artist. There is no Art or Artist without an Audience.
Is it the Artist/Entertainer who decides what is and is not art?
Where are the Art and Artist inseparable?
Thoughts?
[“BLA and GB Gabbler” (really just a pen name – singular) are the Editor and Narrator behind THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the Circo del Herrero series. They are on facebook, twitter, tumblr, goodreads, and Vulcan’s shit list.]
