Spellbinding songstress Alexa Wilding has released her very first music video: a completely mesmerizing three-minute 16mm film. Shot by frequent collaborator, fashion designer and Love Contemporary editor Paola Suhonen, the film features a simultaneously naïve and all-knowing Wilding as she sings Black Diamond Day, in a black-and-white world of pop-esque polka dots. The film is a dark, sweet and almost eerie reflection of the wonderland that exists in Wilding’s head, so who better to describe it than the singer herself?

“Black Diamond Day is a song exploring the theme ‘be careful what you wish for.’ A young girl is curious and has an object of her affection. She pursues him—ha, with her binoculars—gets him, and then is taken on a journey that is a disturbing mistake. Paola suggested polka dots instead of diamonds, since diamonds would be too obvious. I loved this, since polka dots hint back to ’60s pop art and cinema, and we both love the work of Yayoi Kusama, for whom the video is definitely an homage. My songs are innocent and sweet on the surface, but a dark current runs beneath them, so we were intrigued with using the polka dot—often a symbol of purity and girlhood—and having it take on a life of its own… Its like at the end of the “trip” our heroine—me—has been attacked by the very thing that got her in trouble, her innocent self in polka dots. ’60s pop art, Yayoi Kusama and a bit of Clockwork Orange, too, were our inspirations.”

Alexa will be performing with Mike Bones this evening, March 17th, at the closing of Paola Suhonen’s concept shop: the IVANAhelsinki and Love Contemporary Pop-Up Store at 9pm: 238 Mulberry (between Prince and Spring).

Alexa by Gustavo Marx for Dossier