CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/7/2020

Free embrace of the unknown in 'Ira Cohen: Into the Mylar Chamber'

Jhil Prism [Jhil McEntyre] is reproduced from Into the Mylar Chamber, Fulgur Press's enlightening new large-format collection of poet, photographer and filmmaker Ira Cohen's late-60s ritual photographs made with friends and collaborators including William Burroughs, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Smith, Angus MacLise, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Alice Farley in a room enhanced with black light and reflective mylar walls. Farley writes, "It has always bothered me in my own dance and mask theater productions when audience comments, usually in the United States, are, such as this: ‘You must have LSD flowing through your veins’; ‘Is that an illustration of a dream?’; ‘Is that an imitation of a painting?’; ‘Is that an illustration of a hallucination?’ So, I find it unfortunate that some part of Ira Cohen’s reputation (thanks to a 1969 Life Magazine spread) lies in that he somehow managed to ‘illustrate’ the hallucinogenic or psychedelic experience. This is not what he did. An authentic vision arises from the fire at the back of the eye. It creates itself; it does not adhere to a formula. There is no map of the hallucinogenic or psychedelic experience, or of the poetic imagination as it arises from the unconscious. One learns from the dream, one does not try to reproduce it. All that there is to be learned is the free embrace of the unknown… that is what Ira Cohen knew. That is what Ira Cohen did."