Our crew worked with Japanese Artist Mio Shirai on this art project based on ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The project is a sLab (Sunderland Digital Media Research Lab) project developed in partnership with the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art and partners in Japan.
‘Mio Shirai's short films and installations draw upon traditional folklore and myths, and popular stories that we all learn as children. Her films retell these stories and myths for an adult audience, imbuing them with a sense of the uncanny and absurd - a feeling of being "out of step", in her own words. 'Forever Afternoon', re-creates a section of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' using the characters of Alice, The Mad Hatter, The March Hare and the Queen of Hearts to help mark the 150th anniversary in 2008 of the signing of the first Treaty of Trade and Commerce between Japan and the United Kingdom. Shirai allows us to re-read 'Alice' in a new way, as a parable of how we experience and assimilate alien cultures and places. Here, Alice - played by Shirai - has to learn the rules of engagement of a strange yet familiar place, rules which are logical, and yet different to our own. The film was shot entirely in locations which Carroll knew and visited in the North East such as Holy Trinity Church in Southwick and Hylton Castle.’
Exhibited at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK and BankART 1929, Yokohama, Japan - 2009
Cast: Mio Shirai, Dionne Broadbent, Jonathan Darque, Kate May, Nicola Airey,
Art Installation 2008 Running time: 15 mins
Director: Shao Xin Ling
