Artist Discovery Post: Jesse Kanda – Distorted

Reason of the choice:

When centering in a meditating session, I was really focused on my upper body sensations, which eventually made me realize how poor my posture is. I’ve been suffering from stiff shoulders and neck pain, which often ends up with my shoulders making unpleasant noise when I try to move them around. Through the centering, I really could feel the axis of my body is far from being  straight to the ground. This distorted, deformed feeling made me thought of Jesse Kanda, a UK 3D artist who depicts humanoids who seem to have somewhat distorted appearance. I had known this artist from Bjork’s music video work while I was doing research on a different film maker he was inspired, Chris Cunningham.

Biography:

Jesse Kanda is a director of a digital age. Coming from a background in 3D design and animation, he often incorporates new technology in his films to create unique hyper-real pictures.

Following online success with his short film Dutch Wife (later picked up by Channel 4), he quickly garnered attention within the fashion and music industries. Since then, Jesse has worked on projects and collaborations with Comme des Garçons, Martin Margiela, XL Recordings, Kanye West, FKA twigs and SSENSE.

Jesse collaborated with Björk on “Mouth Mantra,” a music video and 360° experience shot from inside the singer’s mouth. The music video was later transformed into a virtual reality exhibition at the Somerset House.

An excerpt of his film TRAUMA, part of an ongoing project with frequent collaborator Arca, was exhibited at MoMA PS1 in 2013 to rave reviews by New York’s finest. The film features Jesse’s mesmerizing visual style and has been shown in its entirety in various galleries throughout the world since it’s premiere. Jesse continues to take the helm for much of Arca’s content, including the recent music videos for the artist’s tracks “Anoche,” “Reverie,” and “Desafío.”

Jesse’s accolades include a Grammy nomination for his album artwork for FKA twigs’ breakthrough album “LP1.”

Work: