Calgary alt-pop artist SELCI unveils her new video for ‘Strangers’ – an anti-Valentine’s Day track about a love that’s faded and gone – off her debut ‘Effervescence EP’. The single recalls a run-in with an ex-lover, and the painful realisation that after knowing someone so intimately, you hardly know them at all.
The video is framed around the deterioration of a relationship, juxtaposing Selci’s own memories in a surreal, subconscious world. A series of hazy vignettes spiral through memory, romance, dissociation and the loss of self. Blending high-definition and 8 mm film, home video and stop motion animation, analog textures are used to imply nostalgia and the timeless nature of broken relationships, while flickers of animation enhance the surrealist vibe.
“As the video progresses, I become cloaked in layers of fabric,” says Selci. “Happy memories are overcome by recollections of anger and violence, and I become engulfed by tulle. As the intensity increases, the boundary between reality and the subconscious world is blurred. This veiling is meant to signify the loss of self in a relationship. It mirrors the sensation of distance from the self and the distance from a lover as the relationship falls apart.”
Have a peek at the video for ‘Strangers’ below…