Monday 3 November 2008

Chris Cunningham has made charicature sculptures, robotic arms and other models for films such as Alien3, Judge Dredd and AI as well as working on computer games. He has also worked with artists such as aphex twin, madonna and bjork.
In my opinion, his most interesting work has come from directing Aphex Twin music videos. His most famous being come to daddy, however, my favourite is rubber johnny.
This video uses low quality camera with night-vision lense and films a strange creature up-close. The shooting of the video is unprofessional and looks like a mock up of alien caught on camera conspiracy. THe creature, "john", is being offered food and is being talked to as if he was a young child by an unkown adult. John starts to scream and the music starts. There is a soundscape which is presented on screen with a serious of quick cuts between a flashing light which turns the video light and dark and with a Chihuahua. The final cut is to John which shows his full body stretched over a strangely designed wheelchair. His head has been made with prostethics to make it huge and hang over the chair. He then goes mad and starts to dance. The low level lighting, the jump cuts and fast-paced cutting along with countless special effects and flashing lights make an extremely strange and trippy video. The location is unknown, it looks llike a backstreet laboratory that gives a home to freakish humanoid but this is unclear.

1 comment:

c_fernandez said...

Some interesting observations, but what is it about his work that makes him an auteur? Are these videos more than just an advert for the band? Why?