1,000 Oceans Tori Amos Music Video: Art of Empathy

As a devoted Tori Amos fan, I frequently profess her genius to friends, relatives, colleagues, and anyone who will listen. But I am the first to admit that her brilliant songwriting, alive to the world of personal symbol, is not well-captured in her music videos. 

Since Tori Amos eschews conventional MTV artist status, she usually enjoys success without the hype of the video medium. Whether it’s due to a poor choice of directors or her songs’ resistance to visual cementation, Tori’s music videos have typically been disappointing. 

The exception is “1000 Oceans,” a track from the double album To Venus and Back. Erick Ifergan, the director, took one of Tori’s more accessible songs and created a visual statement on human empathy. A purposeful montage of people’s reactions to a glass box installation, the “1000 Oceans” video is artful and nuanced.

The video follows the Tori character encased in a fixed glass case amid a nondescript urban streetscape. Although my inclination is to name Chicago as the backdrop, the specific location is largely irrelevant. The viewer simply needs to understand that it’s a diverse city with enough passerby to stop and interact with the glass box while others pass obliviously by. Clad in a black gown, Tori exists in this museum-like case over the course of a day. 

The black gown not only suggests mourning but also a white wedding turned black. Consistent with the song’s simple lyrics of love and loss, the dress evokes sentiments of both union (marriage) and separation (departure, even death). While prone and motionless at points, the Tori figure also moves around the box. She is installed in the urban space like a living sculpture.

A short procession of nuns. A riot-inciting man. A nonplussed senior citizen. A goth-inspired girl spatting briefly with her boyfriend. An overweight hooker in a leopard teddy. These are some of the notable passerby who stop an interact with the glass box. At once, the video is bizarre and realistic, serving as a metaphor for our human responses to other people.