“Imagine a future world in which, instead of working your whole life just to stay afloat, you could sell your soul for a big, quick paycheck. Would you do it?” Asks Zimbabwean artist, musician and poet Shungudzo (aka Shun) who premiered her video for ‘Paper’ today. “Are you already doing it, in some way, in the present? This fictional scenario, but very real internal struggle is what I wanted to bring to life in the video for ‘Paper.”
After a month of brainstorming with award-winning director Carlo Corbellini, the pair decided to create a machine that would appear to extract Shungudzo’s soul from her body without using special effects. They called upon Brett Doar (the master contraptionist behind OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass”) to bring their idea to life. “Throughout the film, we used projection scenes to represent my soul’s fight to stay intact, and its ultimate journey back to me — because, at its core, this is a video about refusing to sacrifice one’s integrity for money,” Shun explains. “If we could collectively agree to do this, as people and as governments, I think the world would be a much better place for us and future generations.”
