Chris Cunningham

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Chris Cunningham (born October 15, 1970 in Reading , Berkshire ) is a British director , mainly for music videos , promotional clips and video art . Before he turned to video art, he worked as a comic artist for the British magazine 2000 AD under the name Chris Halls .

Cunningham was best known for his extraordinary music videos, which are often characterized by surrealistic motifs. His most important works include the following music videos:

The video installation “Flex”, a result of the collaboration with Aphex Twin , was exhibited in 2000 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Together with Aphex Twin, he was also awarded the Prix ​​Ars Electronica in 1999 .

He also worked on the films Alien 3 , Alien - Die Wiedergeburt and Judge Dredd , where he was mostly responsible for special effects . In 2003 a collection of his previous works was released on DVD entitled "The Work Of Director Chris Cunningham".

From March 26th to July 11th, 2004 , Cunningham's works were shown for the first time in Germany with the solo exhibition “Chris Cunningham. Come To Daddy ”will be shown at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover . A catalog of the same name was published to accompany the exhibition . In addition, an edition was published consisting of signed offset prints based on storyboard drawings for the videos " All Is Full of Love " by Björk and "Second Bad Vilbel" by Autechre .

In 2005 he released the short film "Rubber Johnny", which was originally only used as a promotional video for the title "Afx. 237 v.7 ”from the Aphex twin album“ Drukqs ”was planned. The film shows the life of a child conceived by inbreeding and locked in a cellar by his parents. The misshapen Rubber Johnny moves in his wheelchair to the music and changes his shape in the process . Although it was brilliantly cut and technically perfectly implemented, the film, shot entirely through a night vision device, was received differently due to the macabre and disturbing images. The start of the film had to be postponed because the video booklet printer wanted to boycott the production for moral reasons. The record company Warp Records had to have Cunningham's artwork produced by another company. Incidentally, no real disabled person was filmed for the clip, Johnny was played by Chris Cunningham himself.

Chris Cunningham has been planning a film adaptation of the book Neuromancer by William Gibson for a long time . The work on this project has been suspended until further notice.

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personal data
SURNAME Cunningham, Chris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Halls, Chris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British director
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Reading , Berkshire