The World Of THE WORLD OF
BEHIND THE SUN

Our icon is a medieval sun, redrawn from the Flammarion engraving, an anonymous wood engraving first published in 1888. That original work portrayed a traveller reaching the ends of the earth, and poking his head through to new realms of imagined futures.

The sun conveys the core of what we do. Night and day. Earthly and cosmic. We create worlds, and worlds revolve around the sun.

COLLABORATOR, SEAN BRADY & BLAKE AZAR
. UTERO, 2023

Sean Brady is a makeup artist who conjures surreal apparitions and fearless, experimental studies in colour. Under his hand, eyes and brows morph into gothic butterflies; lashes bleed; and entire faces glimmer, recast as precious metals. Brady’s friend and collaborator, the photographer Blake Azar, also possesses a singular vision. His portraits and fashion photography play cleverly with shadow and depth. Some feel like freeze-frames from a dream.

For THE WORLD OF, the pair developed a portrait of their friend, the model Tilly Main. In it, she’s enigmatic and porcelain-fragile, a dark ballerina somehow outside of time and space. While Brady usually avoids reference imagery, Main’s poses are based on a concept drawing by Brady’s partner, the actor and artist Zoran Jevtic. “It all felt very instinctual, evolving on the day,” Brady says. “The image, in some ways, made itself before us.”

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THE WORLD OF

In your collaboration for THE WORLD OF, multiple hands surround a single character. Their hair is slicked back, face ethereal, and they're against a backdrop of deep black, isolated from familiar time and space. Can you tell us about the making of this image?

SEAN BRADY & BLAKE AZAR

Sean Brady My literal first thought was a fetus-like character with large, velvety defined eyes in utero. My next thought was building the home for that character—and figuring out who could capture that in the best way. In my mind, it had to be Blake. He has an eye for depth and can paint an individual with light. I thought of the character’s action, which led me to the hands: are they protecting, holding, delivering? This leads to the image’s intent. I think it’s best to leave that door open.

Blake Azar The conception began on the canvas of Sean's sketches. Black fabric was my starting point, for creating a void that visually engulfed our model, Tilly. Tilly has the ability to evoke so much emotion into a single movement … which made her the only human through which this vision could be brought to life. I wanted to paint the darkness with a light that spoke of both the finality of an end and the quiet promise of a beginning.

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THE WORLD OF

How has your practice evolved in the last year?

BRADY

I’m self taught and hope to always be in the learning stage, experimenting. Loose metallic pigments are a current favourite and I just bought an airbrush machine. (I’m scared to unpack it, in case I become obsessed.) My core influences were always female heroines, strong beauties; think Milla Jovovich fighting a zombie apocalypse in a red slip and a stained lip. But as I get older I see so much more in the nuances of one individual’s beauty.

THE WORLD OF

Speaking of change, is there an app or website that's changed the way you think—for better or worse? 

AZAR

Instagram. It’s good for the sheer volume of inspiration on the platform, but it can be a terrible block to your own creativity if you’re an artist.

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THE WORLD OF

Are either of you nostalgic?

BRADY & AZAR

Brady I'm not too sure if I am. For a lot of my youth I was very nervous. I knew I was queer from a very young age and didn’t want to express that. The smell of hairspray—getting ready for the school blue light disco—still makes me feel so nervous. There are certain moments in TV and film when I saw something beautiful for the first time that I think back on very fondly: watching Fashion TV when the family had gone to bed or Cate Blanchett in Lord Of The Rings, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer while eating Pizza Hut cheese pizza.

Azar I’m nostalgic for the streets, places I once was at and learned to be … Wisdom is in the architecture and parks.

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FURTHER READING instagram.com/seanetc instagram.com/mixedbizness blakeazar.com
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