Ssion

SSION (pronounced "shun") aka Cody Critcheloe is a multifaceted audiovisual queercore artist embodying music, video, painting, and live performance.[1] Ssion has released several records to date and has collaborated with a range of artists such as Sky Ferreira, Ariel Pink, Hood By Air, and House of Ladosha.[2] He has directed music videos for musicians like Brooke Candy, Mykki Blanco, and Robyn and has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, and Berlin, Germany. Critcheloe lives and works in Los Angeles, California.[3]

Ssion
Ssion performing in Chicago, 2014.
Background information
OriginKansas City, Missouri, United States
Years active1996 – current
LabelsDovecote Records, Sleazetone, Version City
Websitession.com

Early Life and Education

Ssion was born and raised in Lewisport, Kentucky.[4] His mother was a draftsman, drawing pipelines for Texas Gas, and his father worked as a maintenance manager at a paper mill. In high school, he formed a punk rock band and eventually relocated to Kansas City, Missouri.[5]

Kansas City, Missouri and New York City

Ssion self-released their first album "Fucked Into Oblivion" in 1999. Four year later, in 2003, Ssion made their label debut, releasing the EP "Minor Treat" and the album "Opportunity Bless My Soul" on Version City Records. In 2007, the group released their album "Fools Gold" accompanied with "Clown", a remix EP, on Sleazetone Records.

He graduated with a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute.[6] While in school, he created album artwork for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and music videos for the likes of Liars.[7] Critcheloe visited both the Mudd Club and the Danceteria during his first trip to New York.

In 2010, he moved to New York where he met collaborators Mykki Blanco, Shayne Oliver, and Nick Weiss holding court at Secret Project Robot and GHE20GOTH1K.[8]

Music

Fool's Gold, released in 2008, is Ssion's second studio album. Inspired by underground cult figures and the aesthetics of revolution, the album was met with positive reviews by Pitchfork. The album has been linked to late-1990s incarnation of Royal Trux's Neil Hagerty and Darby Crash.[9]

In 2011, Ssion released the electropop and disco-influenced, Bent, his third album. Bent features samples of from Courtney Love and heavy bass arpeggio and synths in the style of dance club queercore [10] The release of the album coincided with a 3-day performance at MoMA PS1.

Ssion's fourth studio album, O, was released in May of 2018. MNDR, Jennifer Herrema, and Sky Ferreira make cameo appearances on the album.[11]

Film and Painting

Critcheloe is an acclaimed video director and has directed videos for Kylie Minogue, Robyn, Peaches, Santigold, Perfume Genius, Liars, Grizzly Bear, and CSS among others. In 2020, Ssion directed the music video for Yves Tumor's Kerosene! featuring Tumor, Diana Gordon, Bailey Stiles and Chris Greatti in a Cronenberg-inspired drama.[12]

His first feature film, Boy, was released in 2009 and funded by Grand Arts, a non-profit arts organization from Kansas City, MO. The film was showcased alongside artwork and installations in tandem with Peres Project in LA and Berlin, The Smart Museum in Chicago, and The Hole Gallery in New York City & Viktor Wynd Fine Art Inc in London[13] "Boy" is made up of music videos strung together to produce the gay, punk rock equivalent of Forrest Gump.

Critcheloe lists Pedro Almodovar, Andy Kaufman, Bob Fosse, Franco Moschino, Beck, and Bruce La Bruce as influences.[14]

Critcheloe has been drawing and painting since childhood. His paintings typically reach for punk and California-inspired lowbrow iconography and logomania.[15] Chips, the artist's first painting exhibition since the 2000's, cataloged in storyboard-form painted photographs and stills from both completed and unrealized videos directed by the artist. In addition to the artist's own visuals, he included stills from VHS-era source material like David Cronenberg’s Crash, Pedro Almodóvar’s La Ley Del Deseo, and the American television show Seinfeld. The exhibition was hung salon-style at The Gallery @.[16]

Discography
Title Release type Label Release history
Fucked into Oblivion Cassette Self-released 1999
I Don't Want New Wave & I Don't Want the Truth CD-R Self-released 2001
Minor Treat EP Version City Records 2003
Opportunity Bless My Soul Album Version City Records 2003
World's Worth Album Sound Virus Records 2005
Glory Wound CD-R Self-released 2005
Street Jizz EP Self-released 2006
Fools Gold Album Sleazetone Records 2007
Clown Single & Remixes Sleazetone Records 2007
Street Jizz Single & Remixes Sleazetone Records 2008
Ah Ma Remixes EP Sleazetone Records 2009
Bent Album Dovecote Records 2011
Pink Christmas with Hunx and His Punx and Samantha Urbani 2014
O Album Dero Arcade 2018

Video Productions
  • 2005 – Liars, "There's Always Room on the Broom", music video director
  • 2006 – Scream Club & Electrosexual, "I'm Going Crazy",[17] music video director
  • 2006 – SSION, "Street Jizz", music video director
  • 2007 – SSION, "ASAP", music video director
  • 2008 – Tilly and the Wall, "Beat Control", music video director
  • 2008 – SSION, "Ah Ma", music video director
  • 2008 – SSION, "A Wolves Eye", music video director
  • 2008 – SSION, "Credit in the Straight World", music video director
  • 2008 – SSION, "Warm Glove", music video director
  • 2009 – SSION, Bullshit, music video director
  • 2009 – Gossip, Music for Men, infomercial director
  • 2010 – Gossip, Men in Love, music video director
  • 2010 – Peaches, "Billionaire", music video director
  • 2010 – SSION, "Clown", music video director
  • 2011 – CSS, "City Grrrl", music video director
  • 2011 – Santigold, "Big Mouth", music video director
  • 2011 – MNDR, "#1 in Heaven", music video director
  • 2012 – SSION, "My Love Grows in the Dark", music video director
  • 2012 – SSION, "Earthquake", music video director
  • 2012 – SSION, "Feel Good (4-Evr)", music video director
  • 2012 – SSION, "Psy-chic", music video director
  • 2013 – SSION, "Luvvbazaar", music video director
  • 2013 – SSION, "High", music video director
  • 2014 – Dum Dum Girls, "Lost Boys and Girls Club", music video director
  • 2014 – Kylie Minogue, "Sexercize", music video director
  • 2014 – Perfume Genius, "Queen", music video director
  • 2015 – Lower Dens, "To Die in L.A.", music video director
  • 2015 – Brooke Candy, "Renegade", music video director
  • 2018 – SSION, "Comeback", director[18]
  • 2018 – SSION, "At Least The Sky Is Blue", director[19]
  • 2019 – Allie X, "Fresh Laundry", music video director[20]
  • 2020 - Yves Tumor, "Kerosene" , music video director

References
  1. Benjamin, Mark (2020-07-17). "Interview: SSION, As Big As I Can Dream". RAIN Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  2. "Cody Critcheloe discusses his new album, O". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  3. Farber, Jim (2018-04-26). "Ssion, a D.I.Y. Hero of the Technicolor Underground, Returns Refreshed (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  4. Farber, Jim (2018-04-26). "Ssion, a D.I.Y. Hero of the Technicolor Underground, Returns Refreshed (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  5. "SSION". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  6. "Ssion: Fool's Gold". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  7. "Ssion: Bent". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  8. Farber, Jim (2018-04-26). "Ssion, a D.I.Y. Hero of the Technicolor Underground, Returns Refreshed (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  9. "Ssion: Fool's Gold". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  10. "Ssion: Bent". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  11. "Cody Critcheloe discusses his new album, O". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  12. "Yves Tumor Gets Into a Sexy Car Crash in 'Kerosene!'". PAPER. 2020-11-19. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  13. "VIKTOR WYND FINE ART INC". www.viktorwyndfineart.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-04.
  14. Benjamin, Mark (2020-07-17). "Interview: SSION, As Big As I Can Dream". RAIN Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  15. Corcoran, Heather. "SSION Makes Glitzy Pop—And It's Punk as Hell". GQ. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  16. "Chips". Office Magazine. 2020-08-24. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jhbm_aIETI
  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLVWlaGFhXE
  19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9ggdpiSyk
  20. Allie X – Fresh Laundry, retrieved 2019-09-28
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