Adi Gelbart’s latest music video, “Weeping Monolith,” is a surreal and imaginative blend of stop-motion animation, experimental soundscapes, and handcrafted visuals. Featuring over 300 rabbit puppets, the piece merges tactile materials like felt and wood with an urban setting, creating a dreamlike world that feels both nostalgic and otherworldly. The music itself fuses Eighties-inspired synthwave with eclectic instrumental textures, enhancing the visual storytelling. Crafted almost entirely by Gelbart alone, the project reflects years of dedication to building a unique artistic universe. The video, part of his new album Liquids & Flesh, showcases his talents not only as a musician but also as a filmmaker and visual artist who thrives on blending the handmade with the fantastical.
The Birth of a Bizarre and Beautiful Universe
At the heart of “Weeping Monolith” lies a vividly imagined world brought to life through hundreds of rabbit puppets, each contributing to the unfolding narrative within the music video. These figures, collected by Gelbart over the years, have become recurring characters in his creative output, symbolizing something beyond earthly creatures — almost like beings from another dimension. Their presence adds a mystical layer to the overall experience, turning the video into more than just a musical accompaniment; it becomes a visual journey through an alien landscape crafted from everyday materials. This whimsical yet intricate approach highlights Gelbart’s deep connection to tactile art forms and his ability to transform the mundane into the magical.
Gelbart’s fascination with these rabbit figures began in 2013 and has since evolved into a signature element of his work. He gathers them from stores seasonally, accumulating more than 500 over time. Each one is easy to manipulate thanks to its simple design, allowing him to mount them on sticks for animated movement. Though mass-produced, they take on a life of their own under his direction, becoming performers in a surreal orchestra of sight and sound. Gelbart’s vision sees them not as toys or animals, but as enigmatic entities from a parallel realm, reinforcing the ethereal tone of his creations. The process of integrating these figures into a cohesive visual story required immense patience and creativity, especially when constructing miniature sets in his home studio to complement earlier scenes filmed in a gallery space.
Crafting Art Through Solitude and Dedication
Beyond its visual spectacle, “Weeping Monolith” stands as a testament to Gelbart’s relentless pursuit of artistic independence. Entirely self-taught across multiple disciplines, he operates as a solo creator, handling everything from set construction to camera work and post-production. The two-year effort behind the video involved painstaking stop-motion filming, often leading to physical strain and long hours spent perfecting each frame. Despite the challenges, this solitary process allowed him complete control over the final product, ensuring every detail aligned with his eccentric vision. The merging of old footage with newer sequences filmed at home demonstrates how Gelbart adapts his methods while maintaining a consistent aesthetic rooted in craftsmanship and imagination.
Gelbart’s artistic journey spans nearly two decades in Berlin, where he has cultivated a distinct body of work encompassing music, film, literature, and visual art. His discography includes over 20 albums of unconventional pop, while his films frequently explore themes of identity, existence, and the absurd through anthropomorphic vegetables and rabbit protagonists. Alongside his audiovisual projects, he authored the novel Egglike, further expanding his surreal storytelling across mediums. “Weeping Monolith” emerges from this rich tapestry of creativity, serving as a centerpiece of his latest album, Liquids & Flesh. Released in April, the album continues his tradition of defying genre boundaries, combining organic textures with synthetic elements to evoke a world where reality and fantasy coexist seamlessly through sound and image.