A Beautiful MIND

In an AGE of CONFORMITY, SOLANGE is the RARE ARTIST who RELISHES FOLLOWING her own CREATIVE INTUITION

- KAITLYN GREENIDGE

Imagine an oil reservoir, deep beneath the streets of Sydney, Australia. Originally used during the Second World War, it is now a part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales where patrons can descend a grand, imposing spiral staircase to a performance space. Appearing tonight: a 10-piece ensemble on a red-lit, cross-shaped stage and one of the singular global pop stars of the past decade, Solange, née Solange Knowles. During the course of the evening, she'll lift a hose to fill a clear tub (that she designed herself), step inside for a bath, and get dressed. But before it all begins, as the crowd files in, they hear only a mix of ambient sound, the voice of the artist Autumn Knight, and the voice of Solange herself.

"There were moments I just stood there in silence," Solange tells me a few months later. "When people entered the space, they didn't notice that I was there. [When they did] they had to adjust to the uncomfortableness of me just existing, not entertaining or delivering or slaying." It's hard to insist on the value of silence when our current culture demands, constantly, that one speak.

"A lot of my projects are asking questions," she continues. "With this last piece, I had so many questions about what performance could be, how it could be in service to me."