Seth Siro Anton, woman in a dark mood, dark art

Seth Siro Anton (Greece) - DEATH METAL FOR THE EYES: "...simulate the state of mind of clear dreaming."

Digital paintings, dark music & burning churches...


SETH SIRO IS PUBLISHED IN MANY ISSUES OF THE INSIDE ARTZINE.
6-PAGE SPECIAL (inkl. Interview) IN
INSIDE artzine #16 (PREVIEW/BUY)
+++ Matt Lombard (USA), Chris Mars (USA), Dan Verkys (AUS), Yang Xueguo (China) +++

 

INSIDE artzine no16, tentacles and a cute girl, dark art


seth siro anton portrait, dark artTo get closer to the deeply disturbing surrealistic work of the digital painter Seth Siro Anton, it helps to turn the loudspeakers as far as it will go! Seth, who was born as Spiros Antoniou in his home country Greece, is the mastermind of the death metal band SEPTICFLESH. Besides vocals and bass he is also responsible for the complete artwork. And it doesn’t happen often that artwork and music are such a dense, disturbing unity, as they are here. The dark, threatening expression of Anton’s visual works finds a brutal, perfect counterpart in the sonic outbursts of his music. When you look at Anton’s pictures, the darkness in them softly seeps into your mind, but when you listen to the music, the visions are mercilessly beaten right between your eyes. With all their black violence, their disturbing madness, and, last but not least, with sublime beauty. An album like “Great Mass” leaves its marks on your imagination! Septicflesh cover by Seth Siro Anton, dark artAt first you scream like crazy; then you pull the plugs out of the loudspeakers. After that, you are left in a strangely soothing silence in front of Seth Siro’s pictures. Only then, after the surreal madness of the first viewing has faded away, you will be able to notice the fragile textures in the faces of the tragic actors. The insectoid melancholy that is unerringly established under the skin of your own otherness. The surreal second when you woke up from a nightmare.

seth siro anton, decadence scene with two women, dark art

THE REALISM OF THE NIGHTMARE

Art is always a question of tools. What I call “digital painting” is a multitude of different artistic disciplines. In addition to the composition of evil things on the computer, Seth’s digital collages are primarily based on his photography. Their realism is the basis that looks at us through his bizarre work and reminds us that every nightmare is nourished by the real world out there.

THE BATTLE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS

Even though the Seth Siro Anton (Gonzo) interview in INSIDE artzine #16 ended in chaos and fire (and with his expulsion from the country), it contains some clues about the state of mind of the exceptional artist from Greece. As so often in the murky mud of underground surrealism, it is our dreams that poison the health of mankind. “Dreams are valuable because they release the primordial chaos stored in our neurons, by resetting the power of the time-space continuum. When I paint, I’m trying to simulate the state of mind of clear dreaming.“ In the interview, I had tried to confuse Seth with quotes from Nietzsche, but he was not impressed and stroke back with Carl Jung: “Jung defines the Collective Unconscious as the area of the soul which is infinitely older than the personal life of the individual.“ Therefore the psychic fever that Anton’s art triggers in all of us is not caused by random cosmic coincidences. Seth Siro Anton knows what he is doing. Wherever from.

Beside SEPTICFLESH his work can be found on the covers of other metal albums like MOONSPELL, PARADISE LOST or VADER. Check his website and listen to the music of SEPTICFLESH and read the interview with him in INSIDE artzine #16. It wasn’t my fault that the whole church had burned down in the end. At least not really.