Arca - Sad Bitch
2015 · 2m · UK
Directed by Jesse Kanda
Genres: experimental, musical
Tones: dark, provocative, surreal
A music video by visual artist Jesse Kanda for Arca's track 'Sad Bitch' from the album Xen, extending Kanda's signature hyper-rendered digital body horror aesthetic into the accompanying visuals for one of avant-garde electronic music's landmark releases.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Kanda and Arca built a shared visual-sonic language over years and Sad Bitch is one of its clearest statements — the rendered body as both wound and declaration. This belongs in any serious survey of post-Cunningham music video art.
Jesse Kanda directing Arca circa Xen is a peak-moment pairing. The CGI body work refuses easy beauty/horror binaries in a way I genuinely find new. Worth it.
Jesse Kanda's CGI body-work refuses the beauty/horror binary — the rendered flesh is tender and grotesque in the same shot, which feels novel rather than shock-seeking. The Cunningham-Aphex lineage continued at higher resolution.