Kirin J Callinan is an interesting artist by many aspects. Last year, he ended up on our “top videos of the year” list with the deliberately kitsch visuals of “Big Enough,” where he was ironically representing the concept of masculinity by playing a cowboy with Alex Cameron. He has now gone further in this direction by covering “You Think You’re A Man,” a song originally performed in 1984 by famous and game changing drag queen Divine.

The track comes with an intense video directed by director Kim Gehrig. It explores the concept of masculinity which depends on traditional stereotypes of men as socially dominant and is considered as toxic for its strong interconnection with violence, misogyny and homophobia. About her work and this video, she detailed:

[su_quote]Having grown up in Sydney, but residing in London, I couldn’t help but notice the changing size of men on each of my visits back. Hanging at the beach I became aware of how pumped up Aussie men had become. I continued to observe a culture of young men who seemed to feel a kind of pressure to conform somehow. To be something quite specific.[/su_quote]

Before adding:

[su_quote]As a woman, I felt it might be interesting to lend a female gaze to the subject matter and this film is the result of that. I was not interested however in placing judgement on anyone or blaming any one thing… I just wanted to try and understand how it feels to be a young boy growing up in a culture where there are such specific expectations on what it means to be a man.[/su_quote]

Watch their striking collaboration below.

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1- Brendan Maclean – “House Of Air” (Director: Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston)

Brendan Maclean‘s “House of Air” is probably the NSFW-est video you might have seen this year. It is also one of the most realistic, controversial, and marketable one. Presented as an anthropological study of gay semiotics, taxonomies, and sexual behaviours”, the Hal Fisher-inspired video doesn’t dance around the topic to present gay sex, bondage and more. Strangely, the video was uploaded on YouTube and was banned ten days after with 700,000 views. Directed by Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston, the final rendition is graphic and can’t be more real. It it art, documentation, entertainment, or pornography? Here is the interest and no one can really answer but Maclean is sure about the artistic side of his proposition: “This was never a ‘marketable’ idea, but it was an original one that I cared about. Was it for everyone? Absolutely not. Has it been the most success I’ve had with anything ever? Absolutely.”

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2-SOPHIE – “It’s Okay To Cry” (Director: SOPHIE)

We are fans of SOPHIE’s work since Day 1 and with this new track and video, the producer is pushing the boundaries even further. For the first time ever, she is even starring in her video. SOPHIE appears as androgynous and the visuals come out with a statement from the artist who want to be referred to using she/her pronouns. The interesting part of the colorful emo-dramatic visuals mainly lies in the representation of nudity: as one can notice, SOPHIE is freely exhibiting her breast (and nipples) but YouTube did not censor anything. The appearance of the producer is so gender fluid though, that the arbitrations of YouTube on that specific topic seem to be totally outdated. And it’s useless to add that the fact she also used the same colors than our website was a solid artistic statement.

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3- Björk – “The Gate” (Director: Andrew Thomas Huang)

Alongside long time collaborator Andrew Thomas Huang, a dress by Gucci‘s Alessandro Michele and masks by James Merry, Björk delivers one of the most intense videos of the year. After exploring her sadness after the break-up of a 13 year-old relationship in “Vulnicura”, she decided that it was time to open herself again to love. From an open chest wound featured in the previous videos, there is a prismatic portal of futuristic lovers awaiting for her. In a world where everything is possible, there is space from healing of a hearbreak. The first single taken from her ninth album “Utopia” is an authentic piece of art, and it comes after years of pushing the limits of visual creations. Björk‘s ambition gets even bigger and we expect nothing less from her.

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The rest of videos are in no specific order.

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Young Thug – “Wyclef Jean” (Director: Ryan Staake)

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The Blaze – “Virile” (Director: The Blaze)

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lil peep x lil tracy – “witchblades” (Director:metro blu)

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Colin – “People Talk About Me” (Director: Steven Ross)

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ULYSSE – “Mañana” (Director: A$IAN ROCKY)

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Arca – “Reverie” (Director: Jesse Kanda)

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Kelela – “LMK” (Director: Andrew Thomas Huang)

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RIVE – “Justice” (Director: Ma-Ké, TEMPLE CACHÉ)

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Jinka – “Trash From The Past” (Director: Mario Clement)

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SSION – “Comeback” (Director: Cody Critcheloe)

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Perfume Genius – “Slip Away” (Director: Andrew Thomas Huang)

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Charli XCX – “Boys” (Director: Charli XCX and Sarah McColgan)

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Fever Ray – “To The Moon And Back” (Director: Martin Falck)

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Yaeji – “Last Breath” (Director: Kathy Yaeji Lee)

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FAKA – “Uyang’Khumbula” (Director: Nick Widmer)

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Kedr Livanskiy – “Your Name” (Director: Konstantin Bushmanov and Kedr Livanskiy)

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Kirin J Callinan x Alex Cameron x Molly Lewis x Jimmy Barnes – “Big Enough” (Director: Danny Cohen)

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