Sia Is Auctioning Off a Jar of Her Breath

Sia’s fans consider the Australian songstress, who refuses to face the audience when performing, a breath of fresh air. Let’s hope that assessment is accurate: Sia is set to auction off a sealed jar of her exhalation.

The star has written huge pop hits for Rihanna and Beyoncé, and like any good pop songwriter, she knows how to prevent leaks — including those of her breath seeping out of its glass jar. A spokesperson for the Adelaide Film Festival said, “Gorgeously and magnificently, she breathed into a jar for us. Her breath is in a Mason jar with silver sealing wax, so no one can accidentally open it. Whoever wins it will be able to break the seal — or just let it be.”

It’s a donation that suits Sia’s persona perfectly: Both shunning the sort of spotlight that a donation of her time or artwork might attract, but doing so showily. This self-styled eccentricity draws more attention to Sia than a comparable, more conventional prize (it’s hard to imagine the walk-on role in Anthony LaPaglia’s next film, also up for auction at the Adelaide Film Festival, getting much press). Sia, in promoting her most recent album, has been ostentatiously absent; it’s a strategy that’s paid huge dividends for her, and one she continues by sharing only her exhalations with fans.

The winning bidder will be able to do whatever he or she likes with the jarred air, naturally, but Sia may have left a cryptic hint in her earlier work: Prior to her current renaissance as the singer of “Chandelier,” Sia was best known as the singer of the Six Feet Under final-scene anthem “Breathe Me.”