Below are some still frames from the music video I did in collaboration with the German Black Metal band Widertod. The song is the opening track on their new album Anemoia called “Apollo”.
My approach to the art was to adhere to the brief of a comic style, yet anything polished or slick seems antithetical to the genre. With Black Metal, I believe there’s a purposeful, unbearable rawness. I knew I was on to something when I would intentionally break the art and then wonder if it looked better or worse. If I couldn’t decide, I kept it in. After all, wouldn’t the ultimate Black Metal video be completely unwatchable? Where do you take it from there? What would that look like? Perhaps a seizure is the POINT. “Wabi-sabi” is a Japanese concept that embraces the beauty of imperfection, transience, and the natural cycle of growth and decay. But if you are consciously incorporating these elements into the process of creating the work, isn’t that part of an aesthetic (albeit possibly fraudulent) act? Could it not be considered a form of Black Metal ersatz?
But now I’m more concerned about the puzzle of this thinking. I’m trapped inside this paradox, not even thinking about the art or the music, but instead what it means to even create anything at all. Is everything sensory stripped and shredded and obliterated as a sacrifice to creation itself?
Love it.
Looking at it now, I feel the end result is interesting as a series of stand-alone still images, completely out of context - so here they are.
Click on the images for a larger view.
The image below is an assemblage that I’ve put together and is available as an ART PRINT >>>
Detail
Detail
Video on Black Metal Promotion >>>
Cheers,
Christopher Steininger
Ignore everything below. »>
<> » This is another experiment for the ghost in the machine. «<><
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