For the first time in their illustrious careers, mystic visionary artists Alex Grey and Allyson Grey, co-founders of Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), are showcasing their artwork in the UK with their extraordinary audio-visual spectacle ‘Entheon: A Sanctuary of Visionary Art’. The exhibition is an immersive, multi-sensory experience constructed and presented by ‘Illusionaries’, an artist-led experiential art hub dedicated to creating unique and groundbreaking installations that captivate and engage the senses through animation, soundscapes, projection, colour and illusion.
Alex and Allyson Grey are multidisciplinary conceptual artists renowned for their intricate psychedelic and spiritual paintings, most notably Alex’s ‘The Sacred Mirrors’ series and his multi-dimensional anatomical “x-ray” depictions of the body. The Grey's ethereal works explore the profound depths of the human condition and the interconnectedness of the physical, metaphysical and spiritual worlds.
CULTUR.ART sat down with them for an illuminating conversation about their new exhibition, the power of the arts, and the inspirations behind their creative work.
Alex Grey image from Wikimedia Commons / Allyson Grey image from Illusionaries website
What do you think art can teach us about ourselves?
Allyson Grey: Everything! Isn’t it everything? I mean, for me it is. Art and art-making can open you up to yourself; it calms your mind and focuses your attention on creation and creativity. I use art as meditation; we both paint for hours everyday. We’ll probably go home after this and paint. It's a rhythm, a practice, and you get better at it if you keep on doing it. All creativity is like that, whether it's animation, painting or sculpture, as long as you’re immersed in the vision of what you’re making, it quietens your mind and becomes a form of meditation. Art steadies you, it clears your mind and you get to really experience yourself and the meaning of authenticity. Like what is real? What is bullshit? You can be really discerning with that and get to know yourself better, it's a very personal teaching.
Alex Grey: For me, I think, it’s a lens through which we can see the realities of many different perspectives. It’s a wonderful way to alter your consciousness without taking any substances. Just look at a piece of art, that’s why we think museums are wonderful to experience and attend. It’s kind of like, until you go and experience works of art, you can’t tell what they’re going to deliver you. I find a lot of my favourite works of art actually live in your heart and your mind, and they recirculate, they come back up. Like with music, some days you wake up with a song in your head, it just comes back.
Likewise, sometimes there’s an image or an icon or a symbol that stays in your mind, and it’s like a puzzle. A symbol is like mirrors facing each other, there’s an infinite amount of interpretations that symbols can have. That means it calls forth knowledge. If you really are opening yourself to look and consider what an artwork is, then you have to open your mind to see if you can access the state of being that the artist produced the work from, because that’s the seed that’s inherent in the work, and when you encounter that, you feel that you’ve gotten the gist of the work. You’ve got the world view embedded in it; somehow gotten a sense of what the artist meant, where they’re coming from, so you got the whole download. So, it’s a way to understand one another on such a rich emotional level.
There are reactions that we all have to music and art that do something for us, we can’t always say why. I experience that as beauty, and I want more of that in my life. There’s something about art that enriches us day by day, and it's the encounter with beauty, that encounter is our contact with spirit. We don’t recognise it as that, but the good, the true, the beautiful, that's the triad that we encounter when we see the beautiful art; it’s all one thing ultimately. I think it’s transcendental reality attempting to make contact with humanity through the arts. All of the arts are simply a way for us to tap back into the one creative spirit that’s animating everything and artists are like a funnel or channel for that.
Alex Grey painting
What do you hope people will take away from the ‘Entheon’ exhibition experience?
Alex Grey: Well, I hope that, for a moment, they’ll be able to let go of their personal concerns and open their minds to experiencing some of the universal things that we all experience as humans. To think about life and death and love and spirit, some of the issues that get buried under the arguments that we encounter in social media. Humanity is an awesome and beautiful species, especially when we look at the arts, we see the beauty and the potential of human nature, and so if we just take that brief moment where we reflect on the beauty and possibility that each of us carry, then I think the arts done its job, its uplifted our soul for a moment and we maybe see a new possibility for ourselves.
Like you were saying, the exhibition inspired you and made you wanna go home and make some art; that's exactly what an artist I think would hope that somebody might feel, to activate their own creative spirit in a personal way. That makes them come alive and makes them feel like they’re really tapping into what the purpose of their lives is. They’re making it up, they’re the author of it, they’re the artist of their own life, so it’s up to each one of us to make it the most beautiful and awesome story we can.
So, that’s partly what our art comes from, it comes out of our visions, and a lot of them were from psychedelics. Through art, there’s ways to overcome and transform things that we never thought we could fix or heal. Sometimes all it takes is opening your heart and your spirit to new possibilities. I think art has always done that, sacred art. I think Visionary art is a new type of sacred art.
Allyson Grey: I would just like to say that I am so grateful and honoured to make more friends personally through this experience. The fact that we get to touch more people with what we’ve done is wonderful. I hope Entheon does inspire other people to be creative. I also just love to make more friends, it’s all about that. More friends, more connectedness, more interconnectivity. People always want to find out more about us and we love to do the same. We’re all connected on so many levels, we’re the great net of beings, so we really enjoy making new connections and spreading the love.
It’s great that people are allowed to talk openly about being spiritual now, but it wasn’t always like that; you used to get a lot of shit for that! There were times, when I met Alex in the 1970s, when we both saw God and we could talk freely about it. But you couldn’t talk openly to most people about having spiritual experiences back then, as it was sometimes a dangerous conversation. I mean, we saw God on psychedelics, but all kinds of people have mystical experiences and spiritual openings without needing substances, we see a lot of that too. We’re radically welcoming, there are many paths.
What can we be? In this world, in which everything is going to hell in a handbasket, what do we do? We can be a beacon of light, that’s our job, to have joy, and to make joy, and to give joy wherever we can, with whatever means we have, in any way that we can. The world needs more light and positivity. To be a beacon, means to be a place where people want to go to have a positive experience, and that's what we hope Entheon can provide for those people who choose to attend this exhibition.
‘Entheon’ at Illusionaries runs from June 14th - August 31st. Visit https://www.illusionaries.com/entheon for more information.
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