About the Video
Ever the brilliant artiste, when Kylie Spence came to us with a second single, “Allergic To Your Love,” we at Spirinity immediately knew that we would need to dial up the artistry and emotional weight in this video’s visuals in order to create worthy resonance. Ultimately this involved Kylie literally painting herself into the video itself in a number of different ways (You’ll have to see it to see the vid to see what we mean!). And since her lyrical styling is always thought-provoking as well, we knew that the visuals would have to contain some air of mystery about them too!
While listeners can definitely read different meanings into this song’s lyrics, Kylie herself wanted to bring particular awareness to relational abuse and toxic relationships thorough this video. Being no stranger to exploring the nuances of deep—even heavy and painful—emotions, it didn’t take much for this singer-songwriter to emulate a variety of these throughout the scenes in this video.
Like the initial lyrics themselves, the opening scene sets up imagery that can be analyzed in a multiplicity of ways: red paint dripping slowly from the edge of a bathtub onto alabaster tile below… As Kylie rises from the tub, the story flashes forward—or is it flashing backward?? In any case, we soon see her character is a painter struggling to bring her artistic vision to visual life. The attempts seem to resemble some sort of self-reflection or personal definition, but she struggles to actualize or articulate them genuinely, freely, truly. Clearly she is toiling through conflicting messages about or definitions of herself as she attempts to process them through her art, however painful such a process might prove. But where is the confusion, where is the conflict, where is the pain stemming from?
Throughout the video, we see Kylie receiving texts and messages from her boyfriend, messages growing more and more anxious as time goes progresses, but something seems awry with their relationship—and perhaps with the history of his treatment of her. Are her conflicted interpretations of herself related to such conflicted relationships and the messages they bear? At the same time, we see juxtaposed clips of Kylie also growing more and more frustrated with her artistic attempts.
The Conclusion
As we come to close of this particular story, we see the artist finally resist the temptation to allow abusive relationship to return again; she refuses to allow its messages to enter back into her life. And this resolution, in turn, shifts the experience of her self-reflection. Finally realizing freedom from the bondage of these abusive messages, she becomes better able to create the art she always desired, a truer image of self-expression, and she is finally satisfied with the result.
And returning now to the opening image of the dripping tub… we find this bookended image takes on new meaning, new resolution—and definitely new hope. As Kylie falls back into the tub—an inverse of the original image—we see that it now represents renewal, a kind of baptism into renewed life. But there is still more to learn, there are still more challenges to surmount, and there are still more personal revelations to be discovered, especially in the heart of this artist.
For those who have experienced relational abuse, we hope this video inspires new possibilities and hope for healing renewal—for coming to truer and more beautiful messages about who you are. If you find yourself in an abusive situation or a toxic relationship of any sort, we hope this art might inspire courage to leave it behind, to get help, and to find renewed freedom.