Kanye West’s Power by Marco Brambilla
Jimmy Brown - 9th Aug 2010
Taken from his forthcoming Good Ass Job album, Kanye West enlists video artist Marco Brambrilla to visualise first single Power. The video depicts Kanye as a quais-religious icon (a situation that he may be fairly comfortable with), paying homage to Salvador Dali's famous collaboration with photographer Philippe Halsman. Brambilla explains the ideas behind the Sistine Chapel-style montage:
"Kanye got in touch via my gallery having seen my moving video collage Civilisation installed in the elevators of the Standard Hotel in New York. That piece drew on the themes of Dante's Inferno and uses scenes for mainstream Hollywood films to chart the rise to heaven, or fall to hell, depending on whether you're travelling up or down in the elevator."
"Emotionally, the song struck me as being a combination of this epic and imposing sound with a very urgent message while at the same time there's a sense of contradiction that comes from the human voice behind the music. There's a tension between the decadence and excess but at the same time you can feel an undertone of doubt and fragility."
Power is the first video to be released as part of Brambilla's wider commission to create an album-length film for Good Ass Job. The film will reportedly use Kanye's music as the narrative driving force behind a highly stylized operatic odyssey.
Watch the trailer: Youtube HD
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Jimmy Brown - 9th Aug 2010
Credits
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Production/Creative
- Director
- Marco Brambilla
- Production Company
- SF
Jimmy Brown - 9th Aug 2010