Peaches on Art & Nudity: 'Not for a Male Gaze, Just a Freeing Feeling'

By Madeleine Davies  |  August 6, 2015 | 10:10pm
CelebritiesNews

This September, Peaches will release Rub, her first album since 2009’s I Feel Cream. For every track on the record, she’s also putting out a music video and—most intriguing of all—many of these videos were made on woman-only sets. The artist recently discussed the project with Rebecca Nicholson at The Guardian, offering some interesting insights into her music, all-female collaborations, and the importance of taking your clothes off on your own terms.

You’ve shot a video for every song on your new album, Rub.
Right now it’s such a good time, not only to make whatever you want, but you can show it wherever you want. So with these videos, there’s nothing that will hold me back from saying or doing what I want. For the song Rub, I wanted to do a video with all women, in every aspect, from the electrician to the makeup artist. I wanted to have it Jodorowsky[1] style, where nudity is not for a male gaze but just a freeing feeling. So my first image was like … I want girls spraying or squirting off rocks.

Asked if she felt a difference when working on an all-female set, Peaches responded:

Yeah! I know it sounds silly but you have to confront whether something is a patriarchal thing, like is that a male patriarchal problem? But everybody was so blissed out, it was amazing. The video is very successful. There’s a lot of bush, a lot of things going on. But it’s not porn. It’s an incredible piece of work.

Good news: She is also cool with Rihanna.

So much has changed in terms of gender, women, feminism and how we talk about sex since your first album. The Teaches of Peaches came out in 2000. Gay marriage is legal in the US now. Exactly, yeah.
So if Rihanna is doing a mainstream pop song called S&M, for example, do you ever think, I did this first?[3]
Well, my goal was always to bring that to the mainstream, although people would look at me crazy, like how could that ever be mainstream? It blows my mind. I’m not like, damn, what am I going to do now? To me, it’s great. It’s mainstream and I can celebrate it.

Here’s the video for Peaches’ new song “Light In Places,” prominently featuring an aerial performance by Empress Stah, who—yes—is wearing a butt plug with a built in laser. It is, in a few words, pretty damn rad.

Contact the author at [email protected].

Image via Getty.

 
Join the discussion...