Within the video for his or her new single “Man Made of Meat,” the Swedish punk band Viagra Boys tackle the artwork world with their attribute absurdist satire. The video opens with a closely tattooed man sporting a tank prime, lead singer Sebastian Murphy, in a museum, gazing at a portray of fleshy-pink natural types, additionally tattooed. He takes a swig from a bottle of wine, then tosses it apart, the place it shatters on the ground. Different museum-goers mistake the particles for an paintings, and he’s shortly taken beneath the wing of a person in a slick swimsuit, performed by Swedish artist Ernst Billgren, who molds Murphy into the following artwork famous person.
“The basic concept of the film was born out of an idea of putting the band in a context where they don’t really belong,” the video’s director, Daniel Björkman, advised Hyperallergic. “What happens when you put Viagra Boys in an art gallery? This fragile, fleeting place.”
Billgren’s character mentors Murphy, units him up in a studio, and shepherds him via numerous artwork actions and types. He riffs on the readymade, putting a wine bottle on a Duchampian bottle rack; paints an enormous canvas with a twig gun in a send-up of zombie formalism; and parodies motion portray, dripping paint as he flies via the air sporting a harness.
Behind the scenes of the Viagra Boys video for “Man Made of Meat,” directed by Daniel Björkman (picture by Noah Fernström)
Of their newest video, the Swedish punk band takes on the artwork world with their attribute satire. (picture by Noah Fernström)
That final instance remembers a scene from The Huge Lebowski (1998) by which Julianne Moore’s character, Maude Lebowski, zip-lines throughout her studio, frantically flinging paint, although Björkman says the connection is coincidental.
“That wasn’t something we thought of at all when we came up with that scene. We were thinking of something kind of completely different and more contemporary,” he stated. “It’s also funny in a way, because everything has been done in art. When you put your story in this vast world, people will find references to artists and works that I’ve never even heard or thought of.”
Björkman additionally famous that René Magritte was a significant aesthetic affect for the video, which was shot at Stockholm’s Konstnärshuset and the Seventeenth-century Bogesund Fortress.
Alongside the humorous artwork historic references, the video options a number of work by up to date Swedish artist Leo Park, whose work “Swedish Bather” (2025) Murphy is seen considering on the outset. Park additionally created the quilt artwork for the band’s forthcoming album, a surreal portrait of Murphy, immediately recognizable by the phrase “lös” (“loose” in Swedish) tattooed on his brow.
The video pokes enjoyable at zombie formalism and parodies motion portray. (picture by Noah Fernström)
One scene riffs on the readymade with a Duchampian bottle rack.
Park stated he was influenced by a devilish elf-like character created by Murphy, who can also be a distinguished tattoo artist, in addition to the enduring cowl for Sonic Youth’s 1992 album Soiled, which includes a Mike Kelley {photograph} of a worn stuffed animal.
Park stated he had no misgivings about his precise paintings being included within the parade of darkly comedian cliches.
“You just have to let go of your control over it,” he defined. “You have to put trust in the band or the director. You collide with another artist, and something you couldn’t foresee will come out of it.”
After his meteoric rise to fame, the events, scandals, and a record-breaking public sale helmed by Billgren, Murphy turns into overwhelmed. A vortex of photographs swirls round him, his anxiousness mirrored within the refrain’s lyrics: “I hate almost everything that I see, and I just wanna disappear.” Flashback to the opening scene — although as a substitute of tossing the wine bottle, Murphy merely walks off.
“It’s kind of ambiguous … an open-ended situation,” Park surmised. “That life isn’t for him, but it’s hard to discern if he’s still gonna make art, or just not be involved in that world.”
Viagra Boys album cowl with artwork by Leo Park and graphic design by Colin Smight (picture courtesy Leo Park)
“What happens when you put Viagra Boys in an art gallery?” requested the video’s director, Daniel Björkman. (picture by Noah Fernström)