Aphex Twin

You all may have heard of Aphex Twin, or Richard D. James. His music videos are always bizarre. There are two videos which I have posted that have coincided nicely with our readings on the carnivalesque and the ugliness of women. "Rubber Johnny" depicts a grotesque caricature of disability performing unusual feats of wheelchair acrobatics and battles with breakbeat light as his bulgy-eyed dog keeps his distance. Rubber Johnny's full elasticity fails him as we watch him repeatedly crash into the camera lens and break into disfigured gore. There is so much strange detail in this video, but above it all is the impossibility of this creature in this situation. 

"Windowlicker" can be seen as a grotesque parody of music videos whose bread and  butter is 'hoes'. Well, before we can relax, these ladies blossom eerily exaggerated man faces but retain their feminine curves. Better yet, these curves gyrate in the style of what we are accustomed to see in music videos but we still have to look at these faces. We watch what goes on in this alternate universe feeling kind of strange because we just can't naturally relate to what is going on between this guy and his girls. These girls once belonged to our world, but Richard D. James has made them into his own. What's interesting is that the video is extremely provocative at times, but its much easier to stay at bay and watch with unsettled curiosity rather than passive arousal. The real sensory overload comes at the end when wet human flesh made unsavory by slow motion fills the screen.

~Al