M.I.A. Drops Striking “Borders” Video: Watch

Christina Lee | November 27, 2015 12:36 pm
M.I.A. x Skrillex
M.I.A. is collaborating with the dubstep star for her new album — see a snapshot.

An M.I.A. video can be pop art. More often than not, it’s a sensory overload where you can expect anything from art made of orange toy riflesto Hindu deities in 3-D, Fast and Furious: Saudi Drift and a mass genocide of redheaded boys.

So what is remarkable about her self-directed “Borders” video is its grittier imagery, used to illustrate a refugee’s journey. A throng of them, all young boys, lays down atop of boats to cover every square inch as the fleet makes its way through a body of water. They stand frozen as they ascend a wire fence taller than some buildings, to spell out the word “LIFE” with their bodies. The most striking scene shows them dressed in khaki robes, standing in a formation that is reminiscent of an infamous diagram of an 1814 slave ship.

“Borders” is off M.I.A.’s fifth album Matahdatah; Rather than release it all at once, she will release it a bundle at a time, with videos like this one filmed in different countries to accompany each track. Watch below.

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