Not so long ago, an artist picked one medium and stuck to it. Actors were actors; painters were painters; and singers were singers (usually. They were then, as now, the rebels of the bunch). There were exceptions to this, of course, but they tended to be regarded with either awe or faint derision: To dare to be proficient in two genres could feel not so much ambitious as uncommitted.
These days, however, artists regularly move between both genres and realms: A playwright can also be a curator. An actress can be a makeup mogul. A fashion designer can be a painter. Part of this diversifying is due to economic necessity: Many forms of culture — pop music, films, TV and novels among them — no longer pay what they used to. A 60-something actress I know told me that it never would have occurred to her or her peers that they should be thinking of entrepreneurship at the same time they were trying to build their careers; for actresses in their 20s and 30s, she said, it’s now all but expected. This shift can also be attributed to the digital age, which encourages in many artists a kind of expansiveness, the idea that if all art is interconnected, in the way we experience it online and through social media, then the people who make that art should feel a similar lack of restraints, the freedom to bound between media and conversations.
For female artists, though, especially performers, the urge to find some other form of artistic or self-expression, one less connected to their appearance than their primary job, feels particularly urgent. What’s distinctive about the singer Dua Lipa’s primary extracurricular endeavor — Service95, her all-things-culture digital newsletter and podcast — says the T editor at large Kurt Soller in his profile of Lipa, is that it’s not a product-generating business but rather an ideas-generating one. Unusually among her peers, Lipa is trying to create her own media business; it’s a platform for her to communicate directly with her fans, of course, but as Soller notes, it’s a project informed by an additional savvy. “Anyone who works in media can tell you that there’s no better way to lead the conversation without ever having to actually talk about yourself,” he writes. “While Lipa’s editorial initiative may seem like an act of self-exposure, it’s in fact one of self-protection.” Service95 is a way for Lipa to manage not just her career but the terms of her own fame.
To make art is, to some extent, an exercise in hiding in plain sight. But in an age of social media, virtually all artists are forced to become performers in one way or another. Some are very good at it and enjoy it; others, not so much — but how ironic if the people who seem to live their lives in public can, in the end, teach us something about how to actually be private?
Hair by Rio Sreedharan for the Wall Group. Makeup by Samantha Lau. Set design by Afra Zamara for Second Name. Production: Farago Projects. Manicurist: Michelle Humphrey for LMC Worldwide. Photo assistants: Daniel Rodriguez Serrato, Enzo Farrugia, Hermine Werner. Set designer’s assistants: Tatyana Rutherston, Viola Vitali, Oualid Boudrar. Tailor: Sabrina Gomis Vallée. Stylist’s assistants: Martí Serra, Alexis Landolfi, Anna Castellano
