Miley Cyrus x Reed + Rader

 December 2020 - from Nowness

The internet artists take the pop provocateur to another reality

“‘Model riding a cat’ has been on our dream to-do list for about 10 years,” say digital artists Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader of realizing their vision in a recent collaboration with Miley Cyrus at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Following 2013’s controversial performance that set tongues wagging and consequently saw the pop siren banned from performing, Cyrus returned to host this year’s awards, enlisting the video game-obsessed duo to ensure the event was wilder and rawer than ever.

“Yeehaw is Miley is riding her cat Shanti through a magical rainbow world”

Known for creating wacky virtual worlds in videos Dubstep Dinosaurs and Happy Hardcore Christmas, the artists sent a multitude of tripped ideas Cyrus’s way. Calling on a host of web hieroglyphs including flying cats, rainbows and CGI dolphins, the New Yorkers' end result are these four psychedelic experiments.

“We originally had her riding Mister Wubba who is a stuffed animal son of ours”

“We originally had her riding Mister Wubba, who is a stuffed animal son of ours,” they recall of the alliance. “She wanted to ride her cat Shanti though so we got a 3D model of Shanti made. If we’d had enough time we would have loved to have made a robotic giant-sized Shanti the cat that Miley could have ridden on set. And that would now be in our living room.”

Could you explain in brief what’s happening in each of the four segments?


Reed + Rader: Yeehaw is Miley is riding her cat Shanti through a magical rainbow world. Magical Breasts is Miley is a on a dolphin populated beach and being queen to them. She has dolphins shooting out of her breasts. SideScroller is the video game scenario of Miley chasing cherries. Spaced the Fuck Out is Miley in space trying to complete a mission and being rescued by her fellow astronaut.

If the VMAs were acted out in a video game universe, what video game would it be?

R + R: Pokémon, with the artists trying to catch all those awards.

What were you doing during last night’s performance?

R + R: Eating pizza.