Indira May’s new EP title track ‘Simpler Things’ is animated into a deeply symbolic film by self-taught animator Katie King. The video's symbolic nature roots itself in the the idea of the inner self. Predominantly, that the inner self should be recognised as a place of centrality and grounding, where one can use creativity to manouevre more freely in a world which constantly overwhelms.

Simpler Things touches on climate change, politics and the feeling of hopelessness in this ever changing milieu. But it leaves us with the reminder that inner strength is incomparable to the mask of external strength - and that each individual has the power to build a better place by focussing on their own inner compass.

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Katie king, 'The first section of the animation is the signifier for the wider theme of the narrative: the problematic relationship between humanity and our collective treatment of the natural world.

One example of this is the nuclear bomb that contains multicoloured movement taken from a NASA video, showing the surface temperature of an area of deforestation in South America. The film then moves to the city and a ferris wheel. Two planes cross over and head west.

These two planes take inspiration from Fiona Banner’s suspended mirrored fighter jet, which I saw when I was 17 years old at Tate Britain. I always liked Fiona's quote in the exhibition where she describes the complexity of the fighter jet's beauty; that this is so, but in reality it was designed to kill. This is a similar facet of modern life: that the majority of objects and even food products we value are contributing to the destruction of the natural environment.

Another symbolic moment in the film is with the origami birds, who are a reference to forests and hence, paper. The origami birds leave mother nature with her camouflaged nipples and return to the city where they turn into cash, amusing the inanimate people on the Ferris wheel. I wanted this to be a strange scene where people are happy being distracted by money. This overall image came to me years ago after seeing the Lambeth War Museum show ‘Age of Terror: Art Since 9/11’. Originally the scene was going to be embroidered onto a flag but I am so happy to have completed it here.

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The core of the animation, and Indira May's song Simpler Things, is a life lived in the aforementioned reality. It encompasses the feeling of hopelessness when reading endless negative news, how each relationship takes us on a new dance or journey and the feeling of being free and happy when alone and disconnected.

The animation takes an approach like that of tarot cards (the Major Arcana) whereby the journey moves from worldly familiar experiences (political, relational) to more abstract (mermaids and cosmic Venus coming to earth). It culminates with Venus providing a portal that the pool character follows into, with Venus in tail. The idea is simply that fear should only be the beginning, and the end should always be love. Ideally with one's self first and foremost.'

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