Amelia Arsenic – To Love is to Destroy
The video ‘To Love is to Destroy’ subverts 80s music video fantasies in a domestic horror, where malfunctioning sexbots cry Lichtenstein tears. Amelia Arsenic is a Stepford waifu gone haywire in the age of digital hyper-femininity. It was directed by Oliver Heath. We spoke to him about its creation:
SYS: Tell us about the concept for this video. How did you come up with it… was it a collaborative effort between yourself and Amelia?
Oliver: I’ve been enjoying making video portraits lately and we were housesitting a place that had a projector, TV, scanner, printer and a kitchen that looks like something you’d scout for a cooking show. The opportunity to smoosh Amelia’s face into a scanner was irresistible, but out of concern for Amelia’s corneal safety I asked if she could keep her eyes shut and if she could use her makeup skills to draw eyes on her eyelids. I had no idea she’d go all anime, that was all her. The rest escalated from there. So it definitely was a total collaboration.
SYS: The video looks amazing! How close was the finished product to your first vision, did you have to make any compromises or indeed come up with any great ideas whilst filming?
Oliver: Thanks! There were a couple of iterations. My favourite shots are the shower and the scanner/Tokyo sex doll, because that’s the core of the original idea. We shot the kitchen to link it together. Originally the pot was boiling water (not blood), and there was an earlier cut where it was an endless cycle of Amelia drinking wine, crying in the shower, and the pot boiling without purpose in unresolved domestic nightmare.
I showed the video to Pete Crane (who co-wrote the song) and he said you can’t have all this unresolved stuff, the pot is a “Brecht’s hammer”…. wait no that’s wrong, he said it was a “Chekhov’s Gun”. And I thought f.u. buddy I’m not doing Checkov, I’m doing Beckett, art doesn’t have to be understood, don’t you know anything about theatre? But I stopped myself from saying it because I realised I was really happy that someone was saying something that made me feel like my Arts degree was worthwhile. It was decided that to prove I’m a real director I should expand the narrative along the lines of the song.
And that’s how I ended up being the entire crew for a music video! I’m really pleased with how it turned out, so only love to Pete for the nudge to add a 14hr solo shoot day to wrap it up. BTW the day went so long that by the time we were shooting the bedroom scene there was a house party happening downstairs, but I wouldn’t let them turn the lights on because it would ruin the shot. In the rushes you can hear a drunken anti-vax argument. The anti-vax argument was very distracting because Amelia and l 100% believe in the science led social democratic future as depicted in Star Trek. Kirk definitely got his space inoculations, otherwise he would’ve died of cosmic STIs. Live long and prosper.
Amelia Arsenic’s upcoming Aus/US tour dates.
Asylum 13, Bar XIII – WILMINGTON, DE – 10/25
Stimulate – NEW YORK CITY, NY – 10/26
Darq, Koto – SALEM, MA – 10/27
Corrosion, Wonder Bar – BOSTON, MA – 10/28
Ceremony (DJ set), Wonder Bar – BOSTON, MA – 10/29
Fuze Box – ALBANY, NY – 10/30
Dracula’s Ball (DJ set) – PHILADELPHIA, PA – 10/31
Darkotica – CINCINNATI, OH – 02/11
Evelyn Hotel – MELBOURNE, AU – 22/11
Melbourne Music Week, Melbourne Synth Festival – MELBOURNE, AU – 24-25/11
Freda’s – SYDNEY, AU, 30/11
Flamin’ Galah – BRISBANE, AU – 1/12
Incursion NYE (DJ set) – SYDNEY, AU – 31/12
