Hi-Fructose: Your work has a very unique look, combining dreamlike and bizarre imagery with striking lighting. I’m curious about your beginnings and what influenced your aesthetic? You grew up in a theatrical family, how much of an impact do you think this had on the way you developed as an artist?
Floria Sigismondi: I think growing up in the industrial town of Hamilton, Ontario, but living in a home where theater costumes were made all night and lyric operas were staged all day, was quite a paradox. I bring this dichotomy into my work. The opposite is what attracts me.
HF: Is your art easily accessible? Or did it take you a while to get your career going? Was there a moment when it really started to take off?
FS: It really started to take off when I directed the video Beautiful People for Marilyn Manson. This was a pivotal video for me creatively and in my career as I came up with some very challenging ideas that I had always wanted to do but could never find the perfect outlet for. He was willing to do anything, so I worked really hard. I remember being on set and watching my sketches come to life before my eyes, which was a huge transformation for me. It has definitely changed the way I approach my creativity. This makes me believe that no idea is too crazy.
HF: There is also an element of “beautiful grotesqueness” in your work. I feel like you really helped bring this aesthetic to the forefront of contemporary art, and now it’s more widely accepted. However, I feel like there is a strong rock element to your work (besides having rock stars and musicians as your subjects). Can you talk about your appeal in bringing beauty out of dark imagery?
FS: I have always believed that if you look at something close enough, you will see its beauty. It can be color, texture, symbolism. I find that color attracts me first. A specific image comes to mind: a floating human heart. So rich in color and texture, all I see is beauty in the veins of my soul. The second thing my brain does is try to understand the image. It muttered, “This is a human heart that once belonged to a person. Where is that person now and what happened to that person?” But I had seen the beauty, so that became part of the experience.
I want to see personal expression crystallized. When I was growing up, you had to create your own identity, your own clothes, customize something. “
HF: I’m curious about your inspirations. You have a strong personal style and your works have your unique stamp. What is inspiring you these days?
FS: Metamorphosis, transformation, universe, dreams, aliens, emotions, love, movement, power and contradiction.
HF: Many of your photos and videos have been taken by people who are known for their creative work. How much of the work that has been done is your vision? Do you work with subject matter (for musicians who tend to be interested in their own “image”), or do you think strictly about what you want the finished piece to look like?
FS: When I come up with an idea, I pretty much know what it should look like, and in the end it never strays too far from that idea. I take artists to different places and that’s the fun part. Let’s start something new together.
HF: You sometimes appear as a subject and creator in your own work, and I’m curious about that…is this a way of capturing more of your vision (a willingness to see/act in ways that other subjects might not) or is it more of a self-portrait?
FS: That’s how it started. I used myself because it was easier to capture what I wanted, but then I wanted to tell little stories about myself that I discovered along the way. Knowledge comes from experience. It lifts the veil and makes things clearer. It becomes capturing an idea without a middle man.
