“I have drawn and made things since I was a kid. The visual world is a place I can dream in solitude. I think about the present and how can I reach out to gather the past and the future and draw them towards me. I try to follow the lines, tracing the invisible. Sometimes it’s a simple matter of bringing something into focus, or drawing forward the spirit I imagine lies hidden inside a thing. Other times, it’s finding the flamingo that lives inside the shadow of my heart. Or I could try to cry a circle for the green eye light of a sea horse.”

London’s Isis Gallery is extremely proud to present The Creek – the first exhibition in the UK of artworks by the internationally renowned Antony – January 17 through February 28, 2009.

Antony’s artworks open up landscapes that are at once otherworldly and confessional. Often fragmentary in appearance, these images map the his dreams and subliminal states; polymorphic realms give way to indicated spirits; pen marks and scratches conjure archetypes and invite the fear and grace of the unconscious to emerge.

The primary elements go through many stages – drawn on, burned, soaked in the rain, thrown away and reclaimed, drawn on again, stained or dried over a fire. These are then arranged and photographed. The intimacy of this unique gallery space then heightens the focus and clarity of these spells.

Recalling the notebooks of William S. Burroughs and Antonin Artaud, Antony’s works employ a transgendered intervention to readjust the colonial topography of the American Dream, seeking to identify a sense of crisis, morality and truth upon which a path forward can be forged. Taken as a whole, these collages describe the arc of a dream atlas in which each diverse aspect is unified through the desire for healing.

The Mountain and The Sea
Painting by Antony

Listen: Cripple and the Starfish (2000)