This version of the song Welcome to Wonderland is one of the live recordings from Feraliza's Happy Thoughts (with explicit lyrics) album, recorded at Sandy Bay Studio in Marahau in 2017 with the help of AJ Hickling.
The video was a collaboration with videographer, animator and visual artist Natalie J Cheetham. The filming took place in 2017 in Oamaru, Aotearoa, also known as White Stone City, during the time of the internationally renowned Steampunk Festival, set around the town's famous historical precinct.
Scenes also take place in the Oamaru botanical gardens, Donna Demente's Grainstore Gallery, at the Steampunk HQ museum, and further down the coast at Doctor's Point beach in Waitati.
Natalie and Feraliza always have a lot of fun when they get together and this is obvious when you see the products of their efforts on this project.
The creativity Natalie brought as the director with her ideas, like having a little tiny Feraliza dancing on her own pocket watch with the lyrics that go "holding the time of my life in my hand" brought some great cinematic magic into the picture. Her animations bring extra life to the surreal nature of the song and the incorporation of bubbles, reflections and bizarre reality in a very proper victorian setting make for a delightful audio visual experience.
The song continues one of the strong themes of Feraliza's art, that of making the most of our time in this world. "You never know what's just around the bend" pays homage to her mother Tui Allen's earlier work as a children's book author under the name of Tui Simpson , with a short story called "What's Around the Corner".
The song, and the children's book aim to foster a childlike sense of wonder in every new moment and remind us that we are all a part of the play of life, whether we are the audience, entertainer or working backstage. It subtly invites us to question what our broader role is in the play of life and invokes the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland as a reminder that we all are indeed mad here and should never take ourselves too seriously.
Above all this video is a celebration of the creative spirit of humanity.
The video was a collaboration with videographer, animator and visual artist Natalie J Cheetham. The filming took place in 2017 in Oamaru, Aotearoa, also known as White Stone City, during the time of the internationally renowned Steampunk Festival, set around the town's famous historical precinct.
Scenes also take place in the Oamaru botanical gardens, Donna Demente's Grainstore Gallery, at the Steampunk HQ museum, and further down the coast at Doctor's Point beach in Waitati.
Natalie and Feraliza always have a lot of fun when they get together and this is obvious when you see the products of their efforts on this project.
The creativity Natalie brought as the director with her ideas, like having a little tiny Feraliza dancing on her own pocket watch with the lyrics that go "holding the time of my life in my hand" brought some great cinematic magic into the picture. Her animations bring extra life to the surreal nature of the song and the incorporation of bubbles, reflections and bizarre reality in a very proper victorian setting make for a delightful audio visual experience.
The song continues one of the strong themes of Feraliza's art, that of making the most of our time in this world. "You never know what's just around the bend" pays homage to her mother Tui Allen's earlier work as a children's book author under the name of Tui Simpson , with a short story called "What's Around the Corner".
The song, and the children's book aim to foster a childlike sense of wonder in every new moment and remind us that we are all a part of the play of life, whether we are the audience, entertainer or working backstage. It subtly invites us to question what our broader role is in the play of life and invokes the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland as a reminder that we all are indeed mad here and should never take ourselves too seriously.
Above all this video is a celebration of the creative spirit of humanity.
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