Utopian Insanity
My art follows themes of fear, psychosis and isolation with the latter being very important to how I work and the environment I build around me.
Some people look at isolation as a problem; do they fear being alone or do they fear the potential of what being alone can have on their mind? I truly believe that we can harness the destitute feeling of loneliness and adapt to its bleak grasp, turning it into something profound and wonderful.
For some, the thought of being alone, or even the practice of being alone, can make them psychotic, I believe this can be used in a positive manner.
Taking a step outside of our sanity, and entering the desolate wasteland part of our mind, need not be feared. We tap into an almost primal sensation, allowing a creative energy, not usually seen or heard, to be exposed. We can channel this energy into creating something that is visceral, raw and honest.
As Aldous Huxley states in ‘The Doors of Perception’, “The mind is its own place, and the places inhabited by the insane and the exceptionally gifted are so different from the places where ordinary men and women live”. Now, I’m not saying I am insane, nor exceptionally gifted, but embracing the isolation, celebrating the solitude and reaching down into the depths of insanity might just get you closer to releasing that untapped potential genius that is inside you. ■
A.P. Alizarin is a multimedia artist hailing from Stockton-on-Tees, U.K. but currently residing in Melbourne, Australia. All of his art is handmade and available for purchase over his Instagram. Everything he makes has a meaning and even the most simple of his art has been meticulously thought through. Follow him on Instagram @a.p.alizarin.art
Editor’s note: Alizarin’s transcendent form of art spoke directly to the Eastern Idaho sentimentalities of our editor. Despite being located physically in Australia, his work speaks to the creeping dread and transgressive honesty of Eastern Idaho as experienced by the oft-outcast non-religious, identity-denied, isolated, and marginalized. A haunting beauty, bittersweet. - CP