Lawrence Rothman - Designer Babies feat Kim Gordon

What this video is

Released in 2017 as a preview single for Rothman's debut album The Book of Law (Downtown Records), 'Designer Babies' pairs Rothman's genre-fluid, alter-ego-driven artistic identity with Sonic Youth co-founder Kim Gordon, a totemic figure of American underground rock and no-wave culture. The song was written and recorded earlier (audio single March 2016) but the video was withheld due to a mysterious disappearance…

Why it matters

Represents a high-watermark moment in 2010s avant-indie music video craft: a conceptually driven, artisanal puppet-performance video for a gloomy orchestral art-pop track featuring a canonical underground rock figure. Sigismondi's visual direction elevates the work beyond promotional content into…

The director

Italian-Canadian director, photographer, and visual artist born 1965 in Pescara, Italy; raised in Hamilton, Ontario. Studied painting, illustration, and photography at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Began as a fashion photographer before…