PREMIERE | Liz Melina Godoy Nieto, "Display"
The passion of fashion/art pop star Liz Melina Godoy Nieto; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Since the world's closure in the face of an unprecedented pandemic this past March; the adaptation, acclimation and adjustments have been both difficult and challenging. Whether we accept it or not, our shared world has changed. A shift has occurred that has altered the international economic course, exacerbated polemic political discussions, changed our industries of sports, entertainment and has impacted the multidisciplinary fields of the arts. Everything has changed; our perspectives, our social proclivities, our routines, our occupations, our habits, our expressions, interactions and so forth. Through the navigation of our current day hardships and the cries of civic/socio unrest as we chart into the unknown dimensions of tomorrow; our creative spirit and crafts of expression offer an opportunity to ground and center ourselves while exercising our voice and talents through the models of evolving mediums.
Introducing Paris by way of NYC by way of the whole world fashion/model/pop art/pop icon, Liz Melina Godoy Nieto — the enlightened aesthete offers a debut listen and look at the loud and lavish visual single "DISPLAY". A multidisciplinary work between projects with The Tablets, dealing with the madness of the modern day pandemic era and through health scares; Liz along with creative animated art compositions for the video supplied by her sister Melissa Godoy Nieto showcases a media work intended to inspire the energy of new dances, new feelings, new states of being, new schools of art, new aesthetic rules, all the while redefining the sport of contemporary chic. Modern leisure line fare is seen mixed with bedsheet security blanket styles, as Nieto busts out an array of fancy footing with her face obfuscated by masks. The first mask finds Liz donning a future-tech look that transforms into a ladybug-inspired monogram pattern as the brass bedazzled rhythm flurries with mantras delivered in Spanish:
Quiero que sin cadenas nos eleve el viento, y ya sé que sin raíz nos arrastra el aire…
"DISPLAY" is mixed media installation of sights, motions and lively new sounds. Godoy moves from galleries, confined spaces, to sunny parks while keeping in step to the percussive trumpet notes that drives the track's tense atmosphere. Liz adds to the song's eco-sphere with spoken words that explode with an energy that plumes into foreboding harmonic echoes that are full of feeling, urgency and caution. "DISPLAY" employs a new modern day improvisational ballet that breaks out of the cocoon-like shelter in place like a butterfly in pursuit of new flights of fancy. The motif of eye images, both static and animated, are seen throughout the video breaking out of their closed-eye chrysalis for new visions, to witness new dances and to observe our world that is changing quicker than the blink of an eye.
Liz Melina Godoy Nieto shared an intimate reflection on the processes and experiences that inspired “DISPLAY”:
I originally intended for “DISPLAY” to be an instrumental track. I wanted to just dance to it. I had been working on a few pieces for which I felt it would be right not to have vocals. March came along and with it, the collective experience, the first wave of unexpected. A second wave followed, the offshoots, individual and idiosyncratic feelings, the somatic effects exclusive to our psyche’s blueprint.
After two emotional blows I was still not ready for the third; a wave of painful and visually unpleasant physical symptoms. After experiencing the third wave my feelings became randomized and erratic. At points the anxiety mixed with the physical pain and symptoms would reach such levels I would get a pleasurable high. And in the midst of this happening I experienced hope as a daydream. The words in my mind began being soundtracked with the music in question. It felt as if these sounds no longer required that extra space. The words kept telling me what was going on; they wanted to be melodic but dissonant. In the end, an originally underwater mermaid-esque sounding track for the second part started yelling at me, but it sang in Spanish, and after shouting what seems like many idealized mantras, I decided to keep what felt like the most powerful message to send to myself and repeat it a few times. These are my exact feelings toward any type of sense of belonging in any of my dimensions. I could sing this indefinitely, I want to keep dancing to it. But I had to decide where to contain it for the recording.
We were all suddenly thrown into a confined space against our will. The exact measurements might differ, but for many it’s been a twisted-stuck wrench. And there’s been only one monopoly of a way into the outside world whether we like it or not, but it can be treacherous and misleading if you don’t have the sensibility to distinguish real vs fake, genuinely good or awful within the spectrum more than ever. We were not taught how to do this in this medium.
I am an introvert and a solitary person. I find as much pleasure in doing things by myself as I do with very close friends or family. [They] are precious to me. I require a lot of personal space to daydream. But these times have made it very clear; I need the anchor of positive energy, love, and sometimes tough teachings from the most cherished humans in my life to give my life purpose other than the one I may have given it myself.
The visuals are just the best way I could convey as much of this with whatever I could find at hand, with my zero previous filmmaking knowledge and with the help of some Mayan symbology. My sister, artist Melissa Godoy Nieto did the same with her animations and it was almost creepy to see how much of it ended up looking purposeful with my edits.
And while there’s a lot more to care and act about now than there was since the beginning of March, this is how this came about. My biggest hope is that it makes you want to dance.
Best, always,
Liz Melina Godoy Nieto
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