Bizarre, intriguing, confusing, artistic and mesmerising! Sia’s music video for her new single Elastic Heart is true art and great casting, starring Maddie Ziegler and Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf, Sia has delivered a fitting visual sequel to Chandelier. Uploaded to YouTube yesterday afternoon (Jan 7) it has already notched up an incredible 3.2 million views in less than 24 hours.
(To watch this video in Creation 5, just tap here.)
The video was directed by Australian Daniel Askill, who also shot Chandelier, and was choreographed by Ryan Heffington. It’s an emotionally wrought video focusing on an exhausting emotional exorcism which all unfolds inside an oversized birdcage. It’s completely captivating and wonderfully oddball.
Ziegler wears the same blonde wig and bodysuit that she wore for Chandelier and her manic performance is just as passionate and intense. The dancing, at times, looks like professional wrestling and other times like Capoeira. LaBeouf also gives an incredible performance – it’s certainly one of the most memorable music videos we’ve seen in a long time.
Creating art always upsets some people and there has been some backlash in the last 24 hours with people taking to Twitter with “paedophilia” concerns. Sia has tweeted her defence, claiming that her intention was to “create some emotional content” and portray her “two warring self states”. That’s the nature of creating art; if there isn’t an element of upset, you probably aren’t doing it right.
The track is the latest to be lifted from Sia’s latest album 1000 Forms of Fear and was originally written for the Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack.
Sia will appear on Saturday Night Live on January 17 with Maddie Zeigler.
