Feature: object blue

An artistic intervention from the pages of Fact’s print edition, created by object blue and Natalia Podgórska.

Together, musician object blue and visual artist Natalia Podgórska have built their own world from the inside out–a cosmos created through the narrative that object blue is the ‘source of information that later builds life. ’Their universe ,which takes form in this exclusive artistic intervenion for Fact, is object blue’s third collaboration with her wife and creative partner, following FIGUREBESIDEME (2019) and Grotto(2021). Through object blue’s music and Podgórska’s accompanying visuals, the pair are on a mission to uncover the rituals that perpetuate the undeniable cycle of life and death.

This feature was originally published in Fact’s F/W 2021 issue, which is available to buy here.

object blue’s ethereal macrocosm is stuck in a constant process of metamorphosis. Podgórska sculpts her world, piece by piece, spending hours constructing sonically processed images that mimic sound waves and assume the form of fungal structures, crystals and coral reefs that grow and occupy the land.

This style stems from Podgórska’s interest in group aesthetics and palpable 3D graphics that intertwine colour and texture to symbolise growth. In the pair’s world, tiny, intricate vines bind with crystalised clusters to form mathematical structures that accumulate to build a series of ecosystems.

Dress designed by Oliver Fairhurst

Dress designed by Mia Chambers

In the opening scene for the sci-fi horror film Prometheus (2012), a pale-bodied humanoid alien ingests a black, ink-like solution in a ritual that will sacrifice his existence in exchange for life on earth. Upon ingestion, the dark and deadly fluid courses through the alien’s veins, its journey visible beneath his translucent skin. The creature’s body begins to shatter, fracturing into splintering pieces as his DNA disintegrates. His extraterresrial body is torn apart, limb by limb, as he falls into the waterfall below.

In the water, strands of his DNA disperse and then swirl with the water’s flow, reconnecting to create a new form of life on earth that will give birth to mankind. The premise of the film, which was the main inspiration for object blue and Podgórska’s original contribution of the F/W 2021 issue of Fact, is that in order to create, sometimes you must first destroy.

Dress designed by Reen Kg

Dress designed by Jamie Challinor

Throughout the pair’s visual chronicle, object blue’s surroundings and attire disintegrate. Each garment, in its original form, starts off as a more beautiful, detailed piece before gradually dissolving and decaying with time, eventually becoming stripped down and flesh-like as the threads bind with their host and surrounding environment. ‘The more my body disintegrates, the more elaborate the environment becomes, as if one world is being completed,’ object blue explains.

At the final stage of the cycle, object blue has concluded the shedding process. She is wrapped in a single layer of torn, knitted fabric that is ridden with holes, in contrast with the bed of roses beneath her. Here object blue reaches what Podgórska calls the ‘Goddess’ stage, likening object blue’s appearance in the final stage to her post-gig aura — glowing, otherworldly, and radiating satisfaction. ‘It’s a transcendental process, ’object blue admits, referencing performing.‘ I’m the best version of myself when I’m making music. Nothing can touch me.’

Dress designed by Izabella Bilinska