Christopher Ilth at Reversible Eye Gallery

Christopher Ilth's collages slowly creep into your head—kind of like if you listen to Into the Void by Black Sabbath played backwards. It's probably the intricate texture, and the fact that they seem to pixelate head-trips from the past.

The music reference isn't too far off— Ilth builds his pieces on the backs of old record covers, and the first two surreal puzzles he manufactured in 2006 were for the front and back of a record for the punk band Functional Blackouts he was in (he has also done some covers for his current project, Daily Void.) But Ilth says his work "has surpassed the idea of music… it's opened a fuckin' window in my brain, it's given me a reflection of myself, something I didn't have before. A driving force… can't get enough. Working on it, working on it." Like a lot of us, Ilth's self seems to be awesomely complex.

His show Directory of Silence opens tonight, April 25th, at Reversible Eye in Chicago, part of Version>08 Fest. See more of his work below, and on his Flickr page.
Performances at the opening include Lovely Little Girls, dark surrealist art-in-motion.

Words and photos by Leah Pietrusiak.

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