Introduction

Step into a world full of Secrets, mysticism, magic, and deeply spiritual conquest with the equally mysterious to illustrious anonymous artist known as Sleepr. Secrets is a collection of twelve large scale artworks that send the viewer into uncharted realms that traverse between illusion, dreamscape, or perhaps something even more enchanted. These captivating, large scale artworks will be on display from May 24-30 in Soho, London presented by Scene Spaces and the Solana Foundation.

Join us as Sleepr invites audiences for the first time to be lured down a rabbit hole of internal contemplation and expansive universal exploration with Secrets.

The Origin

Much like the most powerful of 'Spirit Plants' to begin to understand Sleepr and their artworks deeper, the story begins deep with the roots. Sleepr's relationship with mind expanding substances began to come to fruition at an early and formative age.

"I grew up in an interesting part of Australia where pure DMT was available freely. The national flower is the Acacia tree which grows wild and is abundant in DMT so there was always some form of it hanging around at parties, head shops, the local Wizard."

Interview with Sleepr

Can you tell us about your background and how you got started in art?

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 inspired you to create this particular style 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.

What's your creative process like?

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.

Why do you choose to remain anonymous?

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.

What role do you think art plays in society today?

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.

What are your thoughts on the future of NFTs in art?

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's next for you?

I'm continuing to explore and document these other dimensions. The work is never-ending because there's always more to discover, more to understand, more to bring back. I'm also working on ways to make the work more accessible to people who haven't had these experiences themselves. I want to create bridges between worlds, to help people see what's possible beyond our normal perception of reality.

The most exciting thing about this work is that it's just the beginning. We're just starting to understand what's possible when we combine ancient wisdom with modern technology. The future is going to be very interesting.

Secrets

View Sleepr's Secrets collection here.

*This article can be found on Exchange Art here

All this alone appears to be new, unfamiliar ground, which shouldn't be a surprise for an artist who is captured by the notion of creating something genuinely novel. And novelty—a key operative word in Sleepr's practice and what he understands about both the uniqueness of his perspective and its relationship to a larger collective history of efforts in the arts and sciences—is something that is becoming a seemingly rarer occurrence these days. It may be one of the real keys to both the neural and creative contributions he is uncovering.

Sleepr has asserted, "Repetition is easy; novelty is tricky. Artists are in the business of novelty generation. They are the tip of the cultural spear. They foreshadow years ahead into the next waves of who we are all becoming. To understand the way in which novelty generation occurs in the brain would be the true singularity, for it would unlock all future ideas."

Secrets and destiny

Within the evolution of Sleepr's practice, you can trail a succession of new advancements and technical break throughs, and in this debut solo exhibition, Secrets, comprising twelve of his first ever physical works, his ever-exacerbating dexterity in which space, light, form, pattern, story, emotion, and collapsing dimensions is rendered, reaches a new all-time high. Each work is presented as an elegant secret itself; first, neatly packaged with a satin bow, then slowly, systematically, and chaotically unraveling, opening up to reveal multitudes of new textures and startling aspects in hidden spaces. Sleepr takes us on an enchanted odyssey, converging artifacts of a bygone time with entities separated from time entirely, leading us through childhood bedrooms, bioluminescent jungles, blooming treasure chests, forgotten underworlds, and playgrounds that undulate and breathe.

The collection diversely assembles this private world of visions as well as the very secrets the artist has carried with him in his alter ego. It is intended to dismiss a "shamanic implicit belief" that what occurs on "the other side" must remain separated from our perceived reality and off limits for the ordinary public to view. As a result, the collection of work gallantly moves in every direction, hovering between our familiar world and the secret one with a kind of confidence that defyingly teases, dismantles, and grins in mischief.

It is compelling how the resolution of Sleepr's work continues to reach piercing clarity, shifting from flattening all aspects to just two-dimensional planes of color to now thriving in crisper three-dimensional spaces. This series allows for both to coexist in a methodical under- taking that achieves such dynamism, uncanny realism, and spiritual depth that you cannot help but feel as though you really are peeling back the curtain, only to fall right on center stage.

You might expect that—as it is for most artists—the focal point of that stage might be a reflection of the sole creator, of Sleepr himself. But in this case, it is not. Arguably, it is us. Sleepr's resolute decision to maintain his anonymity permits his visions to emerge lucidly from mist, like a paralyzing dream in which we are invited to be central characters rather than bystanders at its extraordinary events. When we ultimately transcend all its ambiguity, we can see it for what it is: a moment of triumph we have been waiting for and a sublime life fully lived.

"I hope that the mission of Sleepr inspires other artists to question what limiting beliefs that are inherent to what artists can do and contribute to wider society."

He continues on passionately,

"often artists are told that we don't contribute anything other than decorative crafts that the rich enjoy. Well I disagree, and believe that artists can contribute really, really important things that no one else, or no other tools can do."

Sleepr believes that NFTs have been the most important technology to emerge for the creative since the inception of the computer and has wholeheartedly embraced the technology.

"It's because it's fused together the social layer of independent funding of artists, with the incentive for collectors to receive artifacts that have worth, and not simply donate to artists,"

he implores.

"It's been a perfect melting pot for highly innovative and explorative risks in the creative industries to emerge out of."

He thinks that one of the most exciting prospects is the many new, young art collectors who are becoming interested in art again.

"It is so important for us as a species, it's the literal tip of the spear for innovation, experimentation and imagination, and it fuels so many other aspects of our world."

In addition to his many achievements during their 15 year academic career Sleepr has amassed an enthralled collector and fan base across the globe who connect with the artists captivating depictions of these seldom seen worlds. With their work sold at Sotheby's, an artist in residence at Art Basel Miami 2023, and digital works sold on-chain across many prestigious marketplaces, Sleepr has established a unique lane for sharing their important mission.

"The artists of tomorrow will be explorers of the unknown who are smuggling back secrets from the other side,"

he proudly declares.

Secrets

Secrets is a twelve-part visual journey, Sleepr's most intricate and involved artworks to date.

"It's trying to capture how widespread these secret hidden worlds are that the visions reveal,"

they explain.

"They are present all throughout culture, in all different time periods from ancient to modern times, in different locations from suburbia to the jungle, and are present from the outside looking in with more realism, and then from the point-of-view of someone inside the visionary world where the forms appear more abstracted."

Secrets is what the artist considers the most complete coverage they have managed to accomplish on the breadth of this incredibly rich topic. They consider these works clearer, crisper, and more pinpoint to the ideas represented versus Sleepr's more abstract leaning work.

The intricate works of Secrets is the culmination of a lifetime of work for the artist, as well as an artistic unlock of sorts, combining field notes collected and visual knowledge acquired from sacred realms.

"All my work starts with visions."

Sleepr begins to explain the process deeper.

"I take heroic doses only and I have diaries and diaries of trip reports I've encountered over the past 20 years. Hundreds of shamanic experiences that I've lived through, thousands of hours of being neck deep in voodoo."

These journeys involve studying the visions they encounter through often intense experiences.

"I notice details - how they replicate, how portals emerge from out of the patterns, how the snake writhes in the air, how I can see through my hands into my skin and into my spirit body, how I rise and levitate. I'm learning for months and months and then I start making art."

Smuggling back secrets from the unknown. Sleepr's mission which is carried through this body of work is to continue to blur the lines between science, math, art, and of course this true brand of 'real magic' that they believe in so. In speaking with the artist, you are all but ready to abandon spoken or written language in favor of utilizing their performed method of visual communication.

"The quantum physicists and mathematicians all describe higher dimensional geometry and then bluff out like none of us can see - well, we damn well can!"

He says with exuberance.

"I'm calling bluff on the authority that "science" has had over our culture, and the disregard for the datasets individuals navigating the labyrinth of mind have brought back - i.e the arts."

Prior to any artwork being seen from the Secrets collection close to $100,000 USD was sold, a feat that caught the artist by surprise.

"That's such a positive sign of a healthy appetite from collectors for innovative artists. These are collectors who have been patiently watching emerging talent and their steady increase in sales, quality and craftsmanship over the past few years."

Sleepr believes that blue-chip artists and premium brands are really leading these cultural and underground movements.

"They are rejecting traditional ideas about what the arts represent. It's such an exciting time for all involved."

In addition to the expansive digital body of artworks, Secrets will be presented in a top-tier manner with a solo exhibition in SoHo, London. Opening night festivities complete with 6ft wide framed printed works, multi level gallery, installations, performance artists, actors, dancers, a string quartet, ringleaders, catalogs with essays, critics, poems, and more. Sleepr wants the works to be a true celebration of being a human, about going further than we've ever gone before, and so believes they should be seen in celebration of being a human.

"They're conquests, but also delicate, and there's no ego attached to the name due to the anonymity of the artist. The whole show is dedicated to a plant! It's all about honoring the plant, which is really just the key to unlock this hidden door none of us knew was there, that enables us to see into this other dimension."

With the gap closing month on month between the traditional and NFT art worlds Sleepr hopes that this exhibition with play a role in opening those doors for the Solana community.

"The traditional art world is very blurry, and has historically constantly been disrupted over what the wider society deems to be of artistic value and of importance."

While other botanical illustrators were documenting strange foreign lands only accessible by months long boat journeys, others were documenting the inner world, only seen through the minds eye. The "artworks" created by Hubert Airy gave insight and the ability to correlate the data with new research emerging. The details suddenly became repeatable, and a pattern was uncovered in a complex phenomena. These patterns have also been casually correlated with much older cave paintings and rock carvings like at Fourknocks in Ireland around 3000BC.

Above: An 1870 research paper by English physician Hubert Airy documenting his own visual experience of a migraine hallucination. (Hubert Airy)

What's interesting throughout this process is that the "artworks" or visual documentation had genuine utility within the field of science. Traditionally, the arts and science can't be further apart. Sometimes artists will help interpret and visualize creatively what the "real science" is. What does space look like in one image, or what does the mechanisms of a cell look like. But rarely, if ever, do artworks become the focal point - and the researchers pore over the captured visual and geometric qualities of an artwork.

Complex hallucinations

But some drugs, specifically tryptamines like N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), cause complex hallucinations. What do those look like? Well, here we reach the bottleneck. I really can't tell you. I can try - but the complexity of what it looks like is beyond the capacity of language. As McKenna once quipped "It's like water off a ducks back, I mean, language just doesn't stick". One analogy might be: Imagine trying to describe what the city of a foreign country looks like. The complexity is just too great to capture the gestalt, or essence, of what the thing really is. Some features can be generally described but each detail that is articulated (e.g. 'writhing stripy tentacles') can bring up an unlimited number of interpretations. We can only imagine using Dall-E 2 to input the textual descriptions, and being able to cycle through a truly limitless number of interpretations of that one sentence.

What do DMT hallucinations look like?

While it is very difficult to articulate, we can certainly try to at least establish some descriptions to work from. The experience of DMT is like opening your third eye to another 3-dimensional space - much like your head is in the middle of a room. It's very much like normal vision, you can kind of look around (by controlling your minds eye, not by turning your head) these rooms. The spaces often feel like a giant dome, or a palace, or a tunnel. The variety of experiences is one of the signature qualities of DMT, every experience is radically different, even for the same person.

But there is very strange geometry in there. The word hyper-dimensional feels fitting, as the imagery looks impossible. The space and objects inside seem to fractalize, distort, bend and warp visually in ways that I've never seen before. There are many sub-categories to vision such as the visual motion, cognitive perception, object categorisation, visual acuity - all of these areas experience novel qualities that are hard to pin down in words. One of the subtle issues is that the visual qualities of the hallucinations are also very difficult to just cognize - meaning to interpret and categorize the very thing you are seeing. Here we end up stuck at another issue being the ability of the interpreter to simply document, rather than influence the very visuals being seen. This is an extremely private event - it is ones own mind tussling with ones own mind.

The Significance

These and many more issues exist in the difficulty of documenting complex hallucinations. This makes it impossible to analyze what they are. How can we study something only you have seen and you can't tell anyone about? While this may seem like just an interesting ontological or academic quirk in a strange field, it has prevented very simple questions from being answered:

What is seen in the hallucination?

Are the beings real?

Are they in your head, or are they from somewhere else?

The significance of those answers being anything other than what traditional science will guesstimate (i.e. that it's all in your head, it's your imagination, the beings aren't real) is astronomical. We just may have uncovered some seriously radical and unique ability to the human cognition and vision. So in 2010 I began a PhD at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation on the topic "Using 3D animation to visualise N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) complex visual hallucinations".

The Moment

I spent two years full-time researching and writing about this topic - one of the most meaningful periods of my life. This felt like it had the genuine potential of being a very important breakthrough scientifically and for the creative industries (my true passion). It was a way to unify the utility and craftsmanship of technical artists to work with scientists unlocking the secrets of mind and the imagination. But at an important checkpoint I was told by a panel of professors that I couldn't continue further as my methodologies were not scientifically valid. Despite designing a range of checks and balances, I could never prove the documenting of the hallucinations was accurate.

While this was personally a crushing moment, I agreed with their identification of a weak spot in the research. After a long discussion about pivoting to a safer topic to resolve the methodology issues, I reluctantly agreed, and worked on developing software for police agencies in the hopes of returning back to the DMT problem. But a few months in, I realized that the spark of insight I had found was generally disregarded and there was little hope in returning to that topic. So I bitterly packed my bags up and left the Institute in the middle of the night.

Progress Is Slow

However, I knew that I had identified a major breakthrough in psychedelic research - I'd first identified the bottleneck and then began the tedious work of resolving it. One of the difficult things about this is that within the academic space, the holy grail is a completeness theorem - an airtight solution that in undeniable. While the average individual may be able to intuitively grasp concepts that leap beyond where science is up to, the slow and methodical nature of scientific repeatability creates undeniable progress.

The Underground Research Continues

While I didn't complete the PhD, I made a promise to continue the research underground. I've taken DMT probably about 150 times now. It's the most important work I do. Oh how I wish, I could draw, model, animate and remember more details to better chip away at that bottleneck. But as a mere mortal, I'm only capable of what I'm capable of right now, and so I try as hard as I can to document some of the qualities and feelings in my artworks.

Here is one that is from the Exotic collection - that moment of taking DMT and it the portal opening up, with a tunnel of eyes, strange symmetry and organic beings beginning to make contact with my consciousness.

Above: Behind Closed Eyes (Sleepr, 2023)

Conclusions

There is a bottleneck in psychedelic research, and there are methods to improve and expand the flow out of information documenting these inner spaces and artists will play an important role in this process. We currently don't have a microscope, a telescope, an x-ray machine that can see what the mind sees. But we do have a plethora of talented and technically advanced individuals who are trained at documenting what their minds eye sees. Artists often talk about seeing "flashes" of finished artworks, a Divine Moment of Truth, that they then spend months methodically recreating using the tools of the real world. The artists are literally the only ones who can document the invisible landscape - thank God for art.

References:

Bradshaw Foundation: https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/ancient_symbols_in_rock_art/visual_hallucinations_a_cerebral_source.php

Hubert Airy: https://www.openculture.com/2019/07/a-beautiful-1870-visualization-of-the-hallucinations-that-come-before-a-migraine.html