Article by Kala Godwin
t is that time of an era again when Lady Gaga has to travel all over the world to promote her new album ARTPOP, and ultimately spread her love to Little Monsters in other places. She went straight from Germany to the UK after performing “Gypsy”. The most recent UK stay for Gaga started off with an exhilarating X Factor performance that thrilled monsters because she sang new music off the album. Of course it was music that we had already heard, (“Venus” and “Do What U Want”) but ones that had never been performed. The X Factor performance had a beautiful backdrop featuring the “Birth of Venus” painting by Botticelli, and started off acoustic with a guitar that Gaga was playing herself ! Her and her dancers were wearing nude outfits that are commonly worn by modern day dancers, which added to the performance by giving them a natural look. The pop star proceeded to do her normal thing by playing the piano while singing “Do What U Want.” Gaga’s vocals were amazing like always, and the performances only got better as the trip progressed.
Her next stop was on The Graham Norton Show. Monsters are always excited when Gaga is featured on talk shows because not only do they get to see her perform, they always get blown away with whatever comes out of her mouth. Gaga started off the show with a great solo performance of “Do What U Want” in glittery printed black pants, over the top platforms, a mesh/glittery top, and an amazingly tall feather hat designed by Marc Jacobs to complete the ensemble. The performance focused a lot on her vocals, which is what the song entails on the actual album as well. Throughout the act, Gaga looked directly at the camera, which is an almost forbidden thing in television, but was perfect for the performance. It was as if she was looking directly at the media through the lens of the camera telling them to do what they want, but they cannot have everything. The body language and facial expressions Gaga showed throughout the song almost gave a reminder of the Monster Ball and the quirkiness of those performances. After the performance Gaga sat down with Graham
Norton, Hollywood actor Jude Law, and British standup comedian Greg Davis. The interview was very long, but of course never boring. Gaga talked about the release of ARTPOP and the snippets as well. She then explained the reasoning behind the snippets and gave the audience a laugh, “When they stream your album the week that it comes out it’s like a cum shot.” The interview took a turn to talk about Gaga’s biggest fan that became famous on Youtube by making a hilarious but “Monster-realistic” reaction to the “Applause” music video. Zachary aka Mr. Mortormouth on Youtube was a lucky Little Monster that got to have a conversation with the Queen of Pop herself through Skype, which obviously made his day, or even his life, when it comes to her fans. Graham Norton had another surprise, but this time it was more of a surprise for Gaga. British actress June Brown came out looking fabulous. She was just so down to earth, and she and Gaga connected immediately.
At the end of the show Gaga performed “Venus.” The performance was similar to the one on X Factor, but it was slightly obvious that Gaga had a little more time to maybe prepare for this performance. The wardrobe decision was once again inspired by the “Birth of Venus” painting by Botticelli, but had a modern twist to it. Gaga had on a sparkly blue seashell bikini, a big blonde weave, and was barefoot just like the painting. The Graham Norton Show is a must see on Youtube, but that was not the only promotion Gaga did while in London.
promotion. She told Mills that she was collaborating with Bob Wilson who is a theatrical director. She posed for 48 hours for the portraits that he is working on. She has also been working with Marina Abramovic again for performance pieces. They also talked about Gaga’s recent trip to Germany and all of the inspiration for the nudity, like the dress Gaga was wearing when she landed in London. The topic then switched to talk a little bit about the corruption of the music industry, her single “Do What U Want”, and the production of “Venus.”
The last day Gaga was in London she did a last minute interview with Scott Mills at BBC Radio 1. The interview is close to 17 minutes but is full of information. She talked about why she has not had much sleep lately - and it was not due to ARTPOP
The UK visit was a successful promotion trip for the Queen of Pop and all of her UK Monsters. We cannot wait to see her back there again for a future tour for ARTPOP.
I
would just like to start this by saying that only Gaga can get emotional when talking about a flying dress and it is for this exact reason that we love her. But, this is not just any flying dress (did I really just say that?) this is VOLANTIS. From a distance VOLANTIS looks like something straight out of a sci-fi film. The shape of the structure in itself is interesting; it made me think of a very geometrical looking flower. However, Gaga herself described it as being in the shape of female reproductive organs and, well, looking at it, this describes it pretty accurately! In the centre there is a mannequin like bodice made out of a hard white material. This is the part of the dress that is worn. Coming up from the centre, she has 6 large white booms containing propellers that, when in motion, create the push/pull forces that give the dress the thrust to lift off the ground. This dress was truly made to take flight. Gaga, TechHaus and Studio XO held a press conference before the album launch party, artRAVE, to introduce VOLANTIS to the
world. This is the second amazing piece of art technology that has come out of a collaboration between Gaga and these two groups. The press conference that was held was to invite the public to watch the beta test run of VOLANTIS. And what a test run it was. VOLANTIS, worn by Gaga, flew! She was able to hover over the ground for about 70 inches. And the squeal that Gaga let out once she had flown in VOLANTIS for the first time let us know what an accomplishment it was. This, in itself was a feat of fashion art technology, one that only a mind like Gaga’s could dream up. But it wasn’t just Gaga’s mind that dreamed this up and this was what she made sure to let the world know. It was also thought up by the young innovative minds of Nancy, Benjamin and everyone else at TechHaus and Studio XO. This is what I found to be the most interesting thing about VOLANTIS. Not only was she a beautiful combination of technology and fashion put together by TechHaus and Studio XO along side Gaga’s vision but she was also a symbol for something so much more.
After a small celebration of VOLANTIS’s success, a beaming Gaga shared this thought with the press, “The important thing really is about her possibilities.” To Gaga, VOLANTIS is about the young minds of the world being recognised for their talents and brilliance outside of the academic and corporate world. Gaga is always trying to identify and bring out talent in those around her, talents that people may not even know they possessed.
“VOLANTIS looks like something straight out of a sci-fi film.” While answering questions about VOLANTIS, she touches on the fact that its so important to move away from limited thinking in art and technology and instead focus on the boundless thoughts of the youth of the world today. This takes me back to the SHOWstudio interview Gaga did in 2010 when she talks about the limitless approach that Marina Abramovic takes to her art. Not only is Gaga trying to use this limitless approach in her own work, but she is trying to show her fans and all the world what can be accomplished if they try and use their own talents’ in a limitless way. Her exact words are, “Imagine if every time we had a thought, if every time we were to communicate we allowed that moment to take flight, imagine the possibilities.” The thing that struck me the most when she was talking to the press is how proud she of was of everyone that had brought this idea together. We often hear Gaga talk about how hard she works to make us happy and we appreciate it so much. But this was different. It wasn’t about her work or her vision, it was about the collective vision of those she believed in. She wanted her monsters to know that she believes in all of us and wants us to use our limitless potential.
independence of TechHaus from any corporation she is more widely talking about the need to stop the corporate world from wearing down the artist and destroying the creative and free space that art should live in. In the first sentence of this article I mentioned the emotion that Gaga displayed was when she was talking about VOLANTIS. The emotion however, was not about the dress itself, but about herself being the vehicle or the voice for all the creative and brilliant minds that feel like they don’t have a voice. In that subtle moment when she catches her breathe in between saying “I will be the vehicle today…” and “….of their voices” there is an emotion in her face, in her eyes, that tells us that this, these kind of moments are really what its all about. The music and the fashion and the performances are all Gaga’s ways of expressing what she really want to accomplish and that is to change the way everyone sees the world. We all remember when Gaga said
“I believe that if you have revolutionary potential, you must make the world a better place and use it.” With BTW her music and her voice began to embark on this revolution, but now, with VOLANTIS and ARTPOP, she is using her revolutionary potential to give the voice back to us, which is what I really think she has wanted to accomplish from the beginning. So yes, VOLANTIS is a flying dress but it is the limitless ideas, thoughts and freedom intertwined with the copper wiring, carbon fibres and propellers that truly make VOLANTIS a revolutionary piece of art. Written by @kikimcheeky
The other point that Gaga made that stood out to me was the fact that she stressed the TechHaus is an independent company. She has talked a lot about the corporation behind the music industry lately and how it has infiltrated her art, music and soul despite her best efforts to prevent this. I feel that when she is talking about the
Gaga at the VOLANTIS launch
After two years of waiting the moment had finally arrived; the ARTPOP album release. In some respects past album release days almost hinted what their respective eras would be like; The Fame almost felt like it had come out of nowhere and took the world by storm while Born This Way was celebrated by spending time with fans both online and at a special store signing, well fitting the dedication page for the album’s booklet “This album is for Ü”. For the release of ARTPOP, Lady Gaga threw a party. The artRave was a massive celebration created in honor of the newest album and designed to showcase Gaga’s vision of a collaboration of art, pop music, and technology. Held in Brooklyn, Gaga and her team turned a warehouse into a nightclub/ art exhibition featuring several statues by artist Jeff Koons who had created the sculpture of Gaga used on the ARTPOP album cover; the surprisingly enormous sculpture was the dominating presence of the event while several other works by Jeff Koons gracefully stood upon pedestals throughout the warehouse. Other work included a room made of binary circuitry and centering around the now famous binary chair which was designed by Benjamin Caldwell. Along the walls hung stills from a photo shoot of Gaga by famous photographers Inez and Vinoodh along with block letter signs reading Gaga and Koon’s names. Before the party even started Lady Gaga began showing the world her artistic vision; there were press conferences and the maiden flight of the one of a kind piece called Volantis, the world’s first flying dress. As space was limited at artRave but every monster wanted to attend, a live feed was set up through Vevo and those watching at home were able to join in on the fun; there were videos such as Jeff Koons discussing his work with Gaga as well as a special twitter feed set up so anyone could post and have their comments viewed on a large screen inside the warehouse. Inside the artRave guest were able to view and participate in all of this along with be-
ing treated entertainment such as DJ White Shadow, Madeon, and Lady Starlight. As time drew closer to the magical hour of midnight which was ARTPOP’s release time party guest kept themselves preoccupied with dancing and helping themselves to the well supplied refreshments table while Monsters at home did what we do best and overwhelmed the Vevo site with sheer numbers alone. Most got their video feeds back just in time however and even spotted a few well known Little Monsters, and even caught some of the audiences antics. Soon midnight came and went and ARTPOP was released into the world, the artRave was proving to be the amazing display that Gaga wanted and all that was missing was the guest of honor herself.
Lady Gaga welcomed everyone to the artRave, expressing her desire to create connections between pop music and art along with stating that she wanted the night to be a change. Gaga then went into the long awaited third portion of the artRave, the performance.
When the music started the audience screamed, which was fitting since Lady Gaga emerged near her beloved Koons sculpture singing the new song “Aura” and wearing what was perhaps one of her more frightening pieces. Dressed in white and wearing what looked like water wings, Gaga sang with a fabric mask that resembled a Pierrot with a pointed black hat. Gaga made her way through the crowd singing “Aura” and going straight into the actual song “Artpop”, pausing to remove a drink someone had placed on the pedestal of one of the Koons sculptures. There was a slight moment of panic as security had trouble breaking through the crowd that had gathered right at the stage however they had the help of the dancers who were already on stage and forming a human chain reaching out to the singer; finally all were upon the beautiful stark white stage which was designed in tiers much like a cake. Gaga shed her Pierrot costume relieving a beautiful leotard-like piece that matched the stage and even resembled the earlier outfits from the Fame Era which matching bob styled wig. Her outfit even sparkled.
At one point Gaga stopped to thank artist Jeff Koons for creating the sculpture for the album cover and went further to discuss the importance of having respect of the artist and not allowing unnecessary drama to ruin artist and their work and dedicating the night’s performance of the song “Gypsy” to Koons. When Gaga paused before performing the song “Dope” however there was moment of deep sadness as she discussed the trouble she had faced with her addictions to drugs and alcohol, how she had seen too many artist and friends end up in a place she did not want to be, and the declaration that she did not need to be high or drunk to be creative; that she could do it without the dope.
Lady Gaga sang and danced her way through almost every song from the album that had been previously introduced and in a sense it really was the mark of something new and different. She sang none of the songs from previous albums but in a way they were still present and through it all Gaga did what she does best, owning the stage with her overwhelming charisma.
Overall artRave felt fresh and exciting, Gaga introduced her album to the world confident and clearly full of artistic vision and an enthusiasm for it that she is ready to share. By Sara Stegman.
FIRST LISTEN
This review was completed after only one listen of each track.