Chris Cunningham is a video artist and well respected music video director from Reading, England. Cunningham had his start in visual media in 1995, working on the film version of Judge Dredd. Previously, Cunningham had experience in model making, makeup prosthetics and conceptual illustrations in many films, even landing work with David Fincher on his 1992 film Alien 3. Stanley Kubrick, scouted Cunningham to design a character for his film A.I artificial intelligence; Cunningham had worked with Kubrick for over a year before leaving to pursue directing. Cunningham’s work was and still stands out compared to the work of his peers and other directors in the music industry during the 1990s. As well as his work with make-up, design and film, Cunningham’s raw and unsettling taste in visual media for music is highly thought of.
Cunningham’s direction in music video started in 1995. With his connections with the record label Warp Records, his debut in visual art for music started with his video for Autechre for their single Second Bad Vilbel. Cunningham had declared his style in video making from this point forward; the rawness and complexity from his first video and many others to come after was dissimilar to the videos at the time, allowing a change in many attributes to the visual form of music consumption. His most notorious work lies with artists such as Aphex Twin and Bjork. Videos such as Come to Daddy’ and Windowlicker still are deemed as admirable even with their unsettling cinematography. Many mention some of Aphex Twin’s and Cunningham’s most iconic, yet on the verge of revolting, videos to have changed the industry in terms of visuals. Even with his work deemed eerie and disturbing, it is a concept that has been interpreted by its audience. Cunningham himself, in his Mirrorball interview, states that his work is not dark adding that ‘the dark thing is something people pick up on.’
Cunningham’s direction on Bjork’s music video, All is Full of Love, received a controversial response when it first was released. Cunningham uses a mixture of Bjork’s infatuation with romantic and affectionate expression and body language along with his own interest and experience with robotics and technology. This leaves All is Full of Love to be one of Bjork’s most memorable videos. Bjork described the video as ‘this is something that’s very Chris, that has that melancholy and that sensual and emotional depth’.
Outside of music video directing, Cunningham has delved into video art and short film as well as commercials and photography whilst also having live art shows. After a six year hiatus, Cunningham returned to visual arts in his collaboration with Dior for their Men’s SS 2021 collection.