Every time I attend an art event I never quite know what to expect however in the case of Sleepr’s show last month we experienced a cultural wonder. The evening began as we stepped into a world reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s eyes wide shut which effortlessly drew us in and hooked our imagination. Upon reaching the gallery itself, a violin quartet performed songs that brought shivers to the back of your neck with eerie off key notes underpinning the surrounding drama.
Around us darkly cloaked figures swirled, their features obscured by hoods and Venetian masks hiding all but their eyes. Each stare held a piercing intensity which produced the effect of being little uncomfortable at times but never crossing the line into true fear. A masked figure handed us a piece of paper and put her finger vertically across her lips before saying “shhh, pass the note on”. Upon the note was written “I will find you through a secret network”. OMG I love a riddle!
The artwork unusually did not follow a set theme but instead varied wildly from one another and evoked otherworldy feelings of alternate realities. The clever use of light was something that really struck us as we ventured through the Soho gallery with a multitude of strategically placed spotlights adding a third dimension to all the images. They were not only impressive in colour, imagination and subject but also in size. They were HUGE!
I imagined myself laying down and seeking answers from his work. I was drawn in and wanted to know more.
A red velvet curtain hid the final room, it was guarded and I felt a powerful compulsion to venture inside. Upon entering the room we we’re in the presence of a masked figure sat behind a thin red veil. He welcomed us in his soft, melodic voice and invited us to speak. As we openly expressed our admiration of the artwork we had experienced he invited us to ask him any questions we wished. Who was he? It was Sleepr himself who had been watching us immerse ourselves in his work. I had to know more of this captivating and mysterious artist.
Hi, how are you? Loving your work! Especially the play on light. Can you tell us a bit more about your process behind it?
Thank you! Hmm, easiest way to describe it is that I’m a visionary artist – so I’m mostly documenting the things I see through my third eye by taking magic plants. I’ll usually have ayahuasca, DMT, mushrooms or cactus, and then go engage with the spirit world, and then write notes, make drawings and try to document some aspect of it. It’s pretty difficult, and I feel like I’m still – almost 20 years later – only scratching the surface of an entire world that’s hidden from view.
These pieces are pretty large, how big are they? Why did you choose these sizes?
They’re as big as we could get the printers to make – 200cm x 140cm wide. It took two men to lift them up! I love feel immersed in art, it’s like you’re bathing in the light of another world. I often want to cocoon myself in it. It’s like listening to music on big speakers with big bass – so much better!
Will you be making these pieces available in different sizes?
There’s only one print available of each, and it’s the big size. Some collectors don’t even have the room to put them on the wall.
Are they originally NFTs? Tell us a bit more
Yes! Curiously these huge beautiful framed works are just prints to enjoy the original works which are stored on the blockchain. NFTs have had a strange history in the fine art world, but are slowly being adopted in as alternative medium. In the gallery few people have noticed (or cared actually) about where the original is, and have instead just enjoyed the work as is.
Oh amazing! I know a little bit about NFTs and more and more people are looking to buy some. What network are they sold on and where?
They are stored on Solana and can be purchased on Exchange Art (https://www.exchg.art). The amazing thing is that anyone can become an art dealer and buy or sell artworks for they purchase 24/7 to an international audience. It’s been a really incredible financial market revolution for creative artifacts
When you start an image what headspace do you find yourself in?
It probably sounds like the opposite of what you’d expect but I spend a lot of time trying to exhaust or empty myself out of concepts and ideas, so that I can more authentically channel. I think the more I learn about creativity the more I learn about how critical the subtlety of intentionality is. If I’m trying to make something amazing, it comes across with this manipulative angle – something like “I hope you like it” or “look at me”. The best works I’ve done are the ones where I’ve emptied all my stuff out, and instead am just becoming a vessel to manage something else pouring through me.
Wearing a mask makes you very illusive. It is intriguing and fun but also quite ominous in some ways. Why do you hide your identity?
It’s for a few reasons – mainly it’s for protection because psychedelics are still illegal to take in Australia, and at some level it would compromise my career being a lecturer at a University. Have to still pay the bills somehow. Being a visionary artist is a delicate balance if you still work in existing systems that can get prickly over all sorts of things. I also think it’s nice for the audience to not worry about the person behind the mask – it’s not actually that important that I’m James Smith, or Weston Tilly. Identity is really elusive and interesting anyway – everyone ends up wearing a mask. I actually think it’s more authentic to wear a clear mask, than to insidiously pretend to be some art-iste without any mask on.
It’s interesting there is an ominous angle – I never mean it in that way. I think masks in general are scary because you can’t quite get a beat on the other person. I’ll actually try to make it less ominous!
There is a piece that looks to me like a bubblegum organ and I feel that when played it would burst with multicoloured blow up animal sweets. Is that completely different to what you wanted that image to evoke?
Oh I love that, such a great description. What an awesome extension to think about how the machinery moves or functions too. You know that piece in particular (It’s All In Your Head) was trying to capture the machinery of mind – a kind of playful idea of what your thoughts are being made up of – this wild, interconnected, pipe-laden machinery where ideas and thoughts are passed around and out pops concepts or ideas about everything and anything. So it kind of originally was about something that would produce all things.
Every time I look any of your illustrations I have so many questions. Do you also provide the answers within your art or your story?
It’s such an interesting game that’s being played with art – it’s like a magic mirror of some sort. Where so much is objectively conveyed in the frame, but it elicits so many personal trigger points. I’m endlessly surprised over how unique peoples experiences are in terms of the details, but they are quite archetypal in the end. A lot of my answers will end up disappointing to many. It’s like we’re both walking through the forest on two different paths. At any moment I might walk up over a stump, or you might walk down over rock – we’re on completely unique parallel paths, but both experiencing the same forest at another higher lens. I can answer any question you like, but the strangest part is that whatever you think the answer is would be as right as my experience. Once the art is made it is no longer mine to control.
Do you have a favourite and why?
I really love them all (probably sounds cliché). But I love The New God. Few will understand why, but a high dose DMT will break through into these strange spaces that are morphing and moving in a really similar way. I feel very incapable of documenting what that space looks like. Even more interesting is I do like the whole piece, but I really only love the work so much because of a few small details that are unimportant in the work – the texture of the stairs at the base of the piece and it’s rounded edges. For some reason whenever I look at those two little details I end up going really silent for a while, and my mind recoils back to a world that feels a million light years away.
What is your background?
I’m a senior lecturer at a University, teaching in digital visual design, programming, 3D animation etc. I’ve been studying and teaching formally at Universities for most of my life, and then doing lots of freelance work in industry around and outside of that.
What drew you to art and this specific type of art?
When I was 15 there was a lot of DMT getting made where I was living in Australia, and I kind of stumbled upon it – or maybe it stumbled upon me. I didn’t really know what it was, but I took it and I saw this explosion of visions that were so strange, so peculiar, so meaningful. I couldn’t believe what I saw. And so I’ve quite literally spent the rest of my days – over 20 years now – trying to draw, and document, and leave bread crumbs back from this place that I’ve been going to. I even worked for a few years on my PhD to try to solve the problem of documenting the visions. I’m not even trying to just draw the things, it’s like I’m trying to work out how to see it so I can understand it.
For me art isn’t just about decoration, or even the expression of emotions – for me there is a new style of art that will become more and more important – which is the documentation of interior worlds that are only accessible by the third eye. No microscope, no telescope, no binoculars, no x-ray will be able to see it – only artists will be able to bring back imagery.
NFTs have been here for a while now but where do you see NFTs in the future of the artistic world?
NFT’s are guaranteed to continue to become more and more part of the fabric of our society. I doubt we’ll call them NFTs, as almost everything will eventually just be one. The medium is an architectural backbone, but the consumers and collectors don’t really care – they just want to enjoy the goods. I think NFTs solves and cracks wide open the traditional art world. It enables complete international, 24/7 trade. Anyone with a phone can now have a multimillion dollar art portfolio – think about how inconceivable that would be that a 20 year old tech wiz would be a major art dealer. I think there will be a lot of NFTs won’t be worth much, but that’s the same with most collectible things, including fine art. The fine art world makes a few big headlines, but under the surface there are very few collectors worldwide to continue to fuel and nurture the creative artistry of society. NFT’s will most probably fuel a creative revolution, which in turn will be very disruptive for existing models of thinking. AI driven art will flood the market with content, and a question of what is valuable will continually be an important question posed by collectors.
What other implications do you think NFTs will have?
Oh NFT’s are basically a smart contract, so they’ll be used everywhere. I’m sure things like real estate, tickets to shows, receipts for a bus will all be NFTs. Universities will issue your degree as an NFT on the blockchain. Really cool use cases will emerge like being able to have token-gated areas of commerce – so perhaps for artists, you need to own an artwork first before being able to buy a shirt, or maybe you offer opportunities to your earliest fans who were the first collectors of an artwork. There’s a whole world of things that are just on the fringes now, but I can see having lots of real world adoption for the creator economy.
By: Isabelle De Polla