Video Art Video: Music films present works by Chris Cunningham

Thu 09 Sep 2010, 3 – 5 pm
DOCLAB

From DocLab:

This week VIDEO ART VIDEO would like to present the second installment of ‘Music films’: The Work of Director Chris Cunningham. In this series we will show documentaries on music and musicians.

Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk.

The Work of Director Chris Cunningham offers a feast of visual ingenuity, with one major difference: Unlike the relatively playful brightness of Jonze and Gondry, Cunningham wants to involve you in his nightmares. From the urban monstrosities of Aphex Twin’s “Come to Daddy” to the limb-shattering weirdness of Leftfield’s “Afrika Shox”. Some of Cunningham’s shock effects are horrifically effective (his ‘flex” video installation, excerpted here with music by Aphex Twin, is as disturbing as anything conjured by David Cronenberg), while others are cathartic or, in the case of Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker,” outrageously amusing.

And while the eerie elegance of Madonna’s “Frozen” arose from a chaotic production, the signature work in this collection is clearly Björk’s “All Is Full of Love,” a masterfully simple yet breathtaking vision of intimacy involving advanced robotics and seamless CGI composites. In these and other videos, Cunningham advances a unique aesthetic, infusing each video and commercial he makes with a dark, occasionally gothic sensibility. That these frequently nightmarish visions are also infectiously hypnotic is a tribute to Cunningham’s striking originality.

The screening is non-profit and aims for studies and research only.

Following the screening is Q&A ses

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