Life is art and art is my life. Cinematic art has been a passion of mine since childhood. I remember
watching Tim Burton movies as a child and getting lost in those meticulously crafted worlds. I’ve always had an appreciation for films and TV shows with a highly stylized aesthetic. After watching the movie What Dreams May Come I knew that I wanted to become an art director.
As a child of the 90’s who grew up watching Much Music I loved watching music videos. Back then music videos were a legitimate art form, and it became a dream of mine to make music videos. As a
multidisciplinary artist, music videos have been an excellent way for me to utilize and hone every
aspect of my craft.
Because the music videos are essentially my paintings brought to life, I use the painting as a starting point when it comes to art direction. The painting determines everything from the color pallete used in the video to which visuals I will incorporate. Every visual element is deliberate and symbolic.
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'We're All Whores'
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The Concept
'We're All Whores' is a satirical statement about how everyone is a commodity, and we're all for sale therefore "we're all whores in our own unique way." Because we exist in a society where money is essential to our survival we are all subject to greed and want. Greed has perverted every industry and profession and that's what the concept of the music video is all about.
Characters
In the painting there are 3 professional fields represented--medical, oil and the justice system. The professions are depicted as "corrupted" versions of their respective industries. When you watch the video notice the transformation of the doctor, oil rig worker and judge into the whore versions of themselves. The professions are literally seduced by power and greed personified as androgynous steampunk machine-like characters by myself and Charlie Monroe.
The Doctor
The doctor, depicted on the left in the painting transforms into a serpent-like pharmaceutical whore with a syringe for an arm in the video. The serpent imagery is an allusion the use of the Rod of Asclepius(snake wrapped around a staff) as the common symbol for the medical field. As the "pharmawhore" he is dressed in fetish wear to show that medical field is being "perverted" by money from the pharmaceutical industry.
The Oil Rig Worker
The center figure in the painting represents the oil industry. A well muscled male torso is chained to an oil derrick with money and oil spewing out of it's amputated limbs to show that the greedy oil companies exploit the ideal of the American Dream instilled in the working man for profit. In the video "greed" and "power" make the oil rig worker is squirted with crude oil and coins are tossed on to his naked body as he is chained like a sexual submissive to an oil rig derrick. He is transformed from the stereotypical image of hardworking manly man into a bitch with a glitter beard.
The use of coins vs. bills was intentional because in Alberta the hub of the Canadian oil industry it is common practice to throw dollar coins known as Loonies at strippers and a good chunk of that money being thrown is made in the oil patch. The oil being squirted on to the "oil rig whore" is coming out of the cone bra of my character which I designed to resemble and oil derrick to symbolize that the oil industry workers are suckling at the teat of "Big Oil."
The Judge
The figure on the right in the painting represents the justice system. In the video the character is a judge that transforms into the whore version of Lady Justice. The scales of justice are traditionally depicted as being balanced, but in both the video and painting one side is being weighed down with money showing that justice can be bought and the side with more money wins. Lady justice wears a blindfold because justice is blind and impartial, but our "whorish lady justice"'s are wide open and she's lovin' every minute of her degradation by my character who tosses coins on to one side of the scale and throws them at her face.
Color and Design
You'll probably notice that the dominating colors in the painting and video are green, gold and black. Green represents money. Gold represents power. Black represents greed. There are also two sets of characters played by myself and Charlie Monroe. The green feathered dancers were part of the sequence called the "Shiny Pretty Whores" and the scenes with androgynous steampunk characters we referred to as "Greed and Power."
Shiny Pretty Whores
The "shiny pretty whores" scenes are about the allure of money. Our green costumes were designed with the idea that we would portray money as attractive and shiny so we covered everything in a ridiculous amount of glitter and rhinestones. We went for a very hyper feminine organic look that incorporated feathers, and flowers because bright feathers and flowers are nature's way of commencing with the reproductive process. We dressed up a bunch of guys in our lingerie and danced around with them to show that we're all equally whores because of money.
Greed and Power
We wanted a stark stylistic contrast between the two scenes, so with "greed and power" everything was angular, mechanical and androgynous. The costumes were black and gold and our characters are mechanical to represent the capitalist machine that our society is governed by philosophically speaking. We're wearing top hats and codpieces with extremely white skin to represent the dominance of the white male in North American politics and business.
In Conclusion
You've probably already watched the video, but I encourage you to watch it again and take notice of all the deliberate little details that tell the story of our society of whores that have sold out in every way and made money the figurehead of our collective religion.
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