Floria Sigismondi

Floria Sigismondi

Floria Sigismondi is one of the first artists I ever really discovered via the internet, & she holds a special place in my heart to this day. Born in Italy to two opera singers & named after the main character from Tosca, Floria’s creepy, scuttling aesthetic instantly caught my attention. I remember finding her website — probably in 1997 or 1998 — & saving pretty much every picture on it to my computer.

This was one of my favourites.

Floria Sigismondi

Floria started off as a painter & illustrator, saying that she was transfixed by paintbrushes from an early age. She studied at the Ontario College of Art, but after taking a photography course, became obsessed with the medium & would skip classes to spend time with her camera.

After working as a fashion photographer, she started to make music videos, & that’s what she is most well-known for these days. (She is living proof that we don’t always end up doing what we had planned out for ourselves!)

She’s worked with a huge number of incredible artists, like David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Tricky, Christina Aguilera, Sigur Rós, Amon Tobin, Björk & The Cure, among others. Her gritty, jittery style is incredibly distinctive & beautiful.

An interview with Floria about her creative process.

 

Here are some of my favourite music videos by Floria.

(I think Tourniquet by Marilyn Manson is one of the best videos she’s ever done, but I can’t find an embeddable version…)

Christina Aguilera – Fighter
David Bowie – Little Wonder
Sigur Ros – Untitled #1
Fiona Apple – O’ Sailor
Fluffy – Black Eye
Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
Tricky – Makes Me Wanna Die

 

She also made this excellent short film called Postmortem Bliss.

 

Do you have a favourite music video director? One of my other favourites is Chris Cunningham, who directed Aphex Twin’s Come To Daddy (which terrified me the first time I saw it) & Windowlicker videos, as well as Bjork’s All Is Full Of Love & Madonna’s Frozen. I think he’s amazing!