The lyrics for U2’s Oscar-nominated song “Ordinary Love” spring to life in this music video made by illustrator Oliver Jeffers and Emmy Award-winning artist Mac Premo.
The song was written to honour Nelson Mandela and was included in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. It was released less than a week before Mandela died, and featured Jeffers’ painted portrait of the South African icon on its cover art.
The video is gritty and understated, a study in everyday, well-worn surfaces that become the canvas for Jeffers’ characteristic scrawl. If the handwriting looks familiar, it might be recognisable from Jeffers’s quirky children’s picture books, which include the popular How to Catch a Star and the New York Times bestseller The Day the Crayons Quit. Born in Australia, Jeffers grew up in Ireland and is now based in Brooklyn, New York.
Though the subject and setting of this video have little connection to the Mandela film, it uses “ordinary” live footage and simple stop-motion animation to draw attention to the meaningful lyrics that honour one of the greatest men of our times.
