Marika Hackman - hand solo

What this video is

Released September 26, 2019, as a single from Hackman's third studio album Any Human Friend (Sub Pop/AMF Records, August 2019), the video arrived at a moment of heightened mainstream visibility for queer feminist discourse and the #MeToo-adjacent body-autonomy conversation. The video directly confronts taboos around female masturbation by rendering the act through domestic object surrogates, then pivots in its…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in queer UK indie-alt music video, 'hand solo' exemplifies the late 2010s turn toward concept-driven, politically engaged video-making that eschews artist performance in favour of idea. Its object-montage structure recalls body horror and surrealist film traditions while remaining…

The director

London-born award-winning film and theatre director. Studied fine art at Wimbledon School of Art, then trained in direction at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where he co-founded visual theatre company Parrot in the Tank. Further trained at…