SMUGGLER new signing, Fiona Jane Burgess, and Gucci Bloom present us with an intimate look at Florence Welch and her artistic process. 'The Awakening' sheds light on Florence’s connection to the natural world and how that feeds into her musical inspirations. Fiona’s direction creates an intimate portrait of Florence, poetic visual language is established through the gliding shots capturing the historic Hatfield House beautifully. At the heart of this project is a journey of self-perception, self-discovery, and self-actualisation. In every sense of the word, it’s a reflection on the idea of personal growth, of evolution, of blooming. It is about finding ourselves, creating ourselves - treasuring a pure moment of apotheosis.
Director Fiona Jane Burgess said: “Florence is an artist who expresses herself in an incredibly honest and dynamic way, creating such vivid and all-encompassing worlds for her audiences to explore. This collaboration with Vogue and Gucci Bloom offered a unique opportunity to reflect on the idea of personal growth, evolution and awakening. Florence explained that from a young age, she has tried to match her external world to her internal world and I was particularly interested in exploring this visually in the film. I am so grateful for Florence’s openness and willingness to talk about her connection to the world around her, including childhood memories, the smell of sweat and a stranger’s perfume, her relationship to the moon and the seasons, dressing up and growing older as a woman in the music industry. Florence has a magnetic presence both on and off screen, so it was an absolute dream to work with her on this.”