Marnie Stern

Keeping self-satisfaction at a distance

 

Zola Jesus. In it. For real.

It’s hard to imagine Zola Jesus, aka Nika Roza Danilova, in her new home city of Los Angeles, dressed in her outsiderish proto-gothic outfits, driving and strolling and loitering between the palm trees and paved boulevards and rollerbladers.

She’d be better suited to the spiked towers of Prague, or the architectural melee of Berlin, or at least the weeping trees and hulking blocks around Central Park in autumn; somewhere you can gaze mournfully or lurk meaningfully amongst buildings with weathered headstone facades.

But, as always, it’s a mistake to identify an artist too much with their work. Why should the recently married 21-year-old star be anything but cheerful with the state of her life?