Altered Zones

Rare is the music video that transcends its purpose as a marketing tool to actually become a worthwhile artistic statement in its own right. Opening a video for a cover of a classic Joy Division track with black and white images of slimy creatures and graveyards might initially seem like sort of a cheap play for attention straight out of the well-trod Joel-Peter Witkin iconographic playbook; but as Spoek Mathambo's South African "house" cover of this inimitable fixture of independent music plays on, I can't help but be utterly transfixed and confused (in the best way) by the symbolism of the scenarios presented by directors Pieter Hugo and Michael Cleary. Gas masks, white powder, police beatings, gothic architecture, township funk... it's all here. Stunning. --Arturo Darvishire, Altered Zones