Alex Grey and The Green Jesus
If you haven’t heard of him then surely you have seen his art and if not his, then perhaps one of the millions of copy cat artists he has spawned. Specialising in psychedelic or visionary art that details the human anatomy, Alex Grey is more commonly known for his album art and long term collaboration with the band Tool. However, it is his performance art and recent creation of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors that really interests me.
“I put the cult in culture.” Alex Grey
The chapel of sacred mirrors is based in Wappinger an hour and a half out of NYC. It is essentially an artistic cult. Without much prior knowledge and keen to get out of NY for a day, I visited the chapel with a friend of mine. Basically, it is a church that worships the Cosmic Christ. They believe that the second coming will be a green jesus who will bring a message of the divinity of nature. To access this spiritual connection they take a whole heap of LSD, have full moon parties and dance in fire rings.
I know… I am blowing your mind right? For a second there I had to check I wasn’t in Byron Bay… I mean Alex should really take this message on the road – cos this shit would blow up in Byron.
Needless to say…I am not a believer. But who knows – if I took a whole heap of LSD perhaps the green christ would talk to me too. Not that I think any less of Alex Grey for this more recent diversion in his career. As a fellow artist with a healthy ego, I too dig the idea of starting my own cult. I mean who doesn’t want to be worshipped? Perhaps I will call it Tempting Alice and we can travel the world in search of wonderland……hang on – that’s what I already do. Anyone want to join my cult? We can get high on experience?
Anyhow…it was a great day, I appreciated the art, ate brownies, (unfortunately they were not magic) stood in the fire ring and did my best green jesus impression. Thank you to Brian from Echo for taking me and expanding my horizons. I am glad we made it home safely and you talked me out of taking LSD….
Check out Alex Grey’s talk on creative consciousness (super interesting) below and a couple of pics of the chapel and me being the green jesus