Posted by kluster on June 7, 2011
The Chris Cunningham shows at Vivid Live last Sunday seem to have courted more controversy than the Ash King video, Scene & Not Heard – Ep 1 SURRY HILLS, NSW. Then again, it makes sense. After all, Cunningham’s videos have ranged in shock value from the robotically romantic All Is Full of Love (low) to the wholly unnerving Rubber Johnny (really, really high). And, there have been many. So it’s understandable that not all viewers would be across his back catalogue enough to expect images of drug-snorting paraplegics with expanded craniums complimenting small girls with bloody, exploding chest cavities.
The hour-long performance – not to be confused with the three hours advertised on the event website – was quite the assault. Drum & bass beats, lasers and a solid layering of past clips meshed together to create an event that, while strangely void of Cunningham himself – he was there, on stage, but more as the grand controller than a performer – was still whole and complete.
Cunningham is a consummate filmmaker and the opportunity to watch his works, as currated and controlled by him, at the Sydney Opera House was one we’ll not soon forget. Heck, we couldn’t if we tried; some of those images have burned themselves onto the back of our retinas and now populate the blackness that appears every time we close our eyes.
Oh, the horror!
chris cunningham, sydney opera house, vivid live, all is full of live, rubber johnny