Having released the 62-minute piece of music @@@@@ earlier this year, Arca is back, debuting the video for her latest single, “Nonbinary”. Set to be featured on the artist’s highly-anticipated album KiCk i, which will drop later this year, the single’s lyrics speak about the self and transformation, and are complimented by a futuristic video.
Directed by Frederik Hayman, the two-minute clip sees Arca on a surgical table, being operated on by skeleton robots. Singing, “I don’t give a fuck what you think / You don’t know me / You might owe me / But bitch you’ll never know me”, the musician bears a pregnant stomach which has tubes and wires attached to it.
Next, we see Arca in an opened sea shell, anchored by chains, the visuals take inspiration from Sandro Botticelli’s infamous 1480 painting, Birth of Venus. Continuing its futurist and slightly dystopian feel, the video echos the beats of the song, which embrace disjointed and heavy bass rhythms.
The video ends with Arca facing another version of herself, finishing off the the track with the lyrics: “I can be friendly or I can be fake / I can be real or I can lick a taste / I could be sexy / Or I could be sad, act bad... What a treat it is to be non-binary, ma cherie… bitch.”
In a recent interview with PAPER, the artist discusssed identity. “I’m asking for recognition that we have multiple selves without denying that there’s a singular unit,” she explained. “I want to be seen as an ecosystem of minor self-states without being stripped of the dignity of being a whole. It gives me the feeling of possibility, to not allow for easy categorisation.”
Watch the video for “Nonbinary” below.