tame impala, innerspeaker & psychedelia

tame impala's music is classed as psychedelic rock and the themes explored in his music are also linked to psychedelia - so it thought it would be worth looking further into psychedelic art.
i feel like the themes i'm exploring in this project suit this aesthetic and implementing aspects of psychedelic art into my own work would again nod to where the inspiration for this project came from.

psychedelic art is underpinned by the freeing of the artistic process of any rational restrictions through the use of mind altering substances; but what i'm interested in (for this brief) is less so the mind altering substances aspect of it (obviously) but more so the visual qualities that appear in the work of artists who chose to work in this way because i feel that the surreal, dreamy, colourful aesthetic of psychedelic art has interesting parallels with my own work.

"The Rejection of mainstream culture was followed by the establishment of the new one, most notable in the new music genres like psychedelic rock"
"their interest was turned towards the eastern spirituality and explorations of their newly found sexual liberties" 

"psychedelic art: fantastic subject matter, kaleidoscopic and spiral patterns, bright color, extreme detail, groovy typography" (Bigman, Tripping Out: The history of psychedelic design, 2016)

Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and Counterculture in the 1960s

edited by Christoph Grunenberg, Jonathan Harris, Jonathan P. Harris

besides the visual aspects of psychedelic art, what draws me to this style is the connections it has to music, spirituality and love - this idea of psychedelic art being "a matter of empathy and shared feeling". i feel as though the style itself really suits the themes i'm exploring in my own work - it's about feeling, about awareness, about the surreal and the dreamy; it was used as a positive way of questioning the political and social values of post-war America in the 60s & i like the idea of using art to subvert systems (even if it's done very subtly) but also to shine awareness on things that really matter.

how am i using the aesthetic of my work to break/ change ways of thinking?
how are my colour palettes and content linked to what it is i'm trying to say?

and for me it ultimately comes down to this idea of awareness - i'd like to think that people engaging with my work will feel calmer, present and understood in the way that they feel and the things that they think about.

"In much psychedelic graphic imagery and decorative pattern flowers and organic shapes dominate, but there is sometimes something sickly and green-meaning corruption about them; an over-growness or monstrous hybridity"

i found that this quote made me think of another parallel between psychedelic imagery and my work - there's a discussion here of an underlying paradox that exists within psychedelic art that i really like. this idea of there being slightly scary, 'sickly' undertones within the apparent beauty and abundant use of colour. and i feel like my work is a bit like that - aesthetically it's pleasing and soothing but there is contrasting tinge of sadness and existentialism that crops up in it too. & i'm a big fan of the juxtaposition between the two.

think about contemporary practitioners that use music as inspiration/are inspired by psychedelia etc - how are they using this in their work (think colour schemes, themes/subjects; how can i incorporate whatever they're doing into my own practice?

Evan Mcohen I

Evan Mcohen II

Raman Djafari I

Raman Djafari II

Heinz Edelmann

motifs:

*the sun

*the moon

*flowers

*pattern

*stars

*eyes

*morphing

biblio:

https://www.widewalls.ch/psychedelic-artists-top-list/hana-alisa/

https://99designs.co.uk/blog/design-history-movements/tripping-history-psychedelic-design/