Mia Maestro's Blue Eyed Sailor Body Painted Butterfly Metamorphosis

Mia Maestro: Blue Eyed Sailor on Nowness.com.

Inspired by the mysterious quiet of artist Cecilia Paredes’ “photoperformances”, the video for Mia Maestro’s single “Blue Eyed Sailor” depicts a perpetual metamorphosis in its debut on Nowness.com. The visuals are the product of a directorial collaboration between Academy Award-winning cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and new media artist Juan Azulay, while the track itself was produced by Björk and CocoRosie cohort Valgeir Sigurðsson and arranged by composer Nico Muhly.

Maestro is camouflaged against matching backdrops, covered in ornate body makeup, as she sings at once about the breed of butterfly that inspired key visuals in this clip, and of a bygone romance with an enchanting character who transformed repeatedly over the course of a courtship. “You see a body trying to morph into a background, an exile intending to blend into a foreign context,” she says. Having initially carved out a career in film, appearing in features such as The Motorcycle Diaries, Frida and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, the Argentine notes that songwriting is an art form she now prefers over acting: “Writing songs feels a lot more personal—I’m more vulnerable when I’m doing music. I’ve always believed that there’s a deep connection between singing and showing a glimpse of your spirit.”

Mia Maestro and Juan Azulay raised $12,000 on Kickstarter in funding that ended Nov. 12, 2012.