Monkey Drummer (2001)
July 10, 2001Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Media.
Details.
Release DateJuly 10, 2001
StatusReleased
Running Time2m
Last updated:
Wiki.
Monkey Drummer is a 2.5-minute-long music video created by British music video director Chris Cunningham in 2001. The video was commissioned by the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London and was meant to be a companion piece to his Flex commercial, but it was not completed in time for the exhibition in September 2000 and instead made its debut at the Venice Biennale's 49th International Exhibition of Art in June 2001. It subsequently went on to run in several exhibitions such as the Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. The short is a humorous, kinetic study of a mechanical being with nine appendages—six arms, two legs, and one drumstick penis—all seemingly controlled by the head of a monkey, though it is unclear what is in control. Each flesh-and-blood body part juts from a black steel appendage and acts human, while being controlled mechanically.