Yes, we know that Alex Grey is hardly considered “outside” anymore. I’m sure there are the ultra-hip who would disdain my inclusion of Grey in this category, as he is practically a pop icon now, nearly as popular as Thomas Kinkade. Part of what caused this is his discovery by the band Tool. But I’m listing him as an “outsider” due to his steadfast admission of, and insistence on the importance to his work of, his LSD use. This makes people uncomfortable who lump LSD and other “entheogens” with all other substances of abuse. But to pass on that argument…
I look at Alex Grey as sort of the “anti-Giger”. Their styles have in common superhuman skill, an unbelievable amount of detail and meticulous work. But whereas Giger focused on scenes of horror rendered in a dark palette of grays, blacks and purples, Grey’s subjects are luminous beings rendered in a brilliant rainbow of psychedelic hues.
His work ethic must be astonishing. Just thinking in my own life what it takes to try to produce a single medium-scale piece of my own, standing in front of his Sacred Mirrors series (I was fortunate enough to see a large exhibition of his originals) stunned me with its detail and craftsmanship — not to mention its intense subject matter.
If you’ve not been able to see Grey originals, or are in a position where you’re not likely to be, I do recommend you try to access one of the books of reproductions of his works, or perhaps get a poster-sized one as they tend to be large in size.
OK; now I’m finally getting around to actually talking about the DVD that this post is supposed to be a review of. The disc runs about an hour, and consists essentially of a long talk by Grey accompanied by inoffensive new age music, and close pans and zooms of many of his psychedelic artworks. (His earlier works are pretty much ignored–see some of the books about him for more of his earlier work and life.) The close ups do give you some feeling for the amazing skill and work he puts into his creations.
There is no doubt that Grey is intensely serious and passionate about his spiritual quest. Unfortunately few people can translate these matters into compelling talk. Obviously, he had no script or outline and basically just free associated for an hour. After a while, I’m afraid that I didn’t really hear things that electrified me. Perhaps in a different setting or on a different day I would. But basically they just turned the mike on and let him talk. It just amounts to the simple fact that not all artists are compelling speakers, even when it comes to their own work and philosophy. To a degree I have to level this same critcism to Andy Goldsworthy. I love his site art, and the DVDs and books of them are gorgeous, but he’s not the most dynamic person to listen to talk about it.
As a comparison, it seemed to me that listening to the late Terrence McKenna talk on entheogens really did hold my interest.
linda fetch 