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Life is filled with little surprises, great art among them. Showing up at the movie theater to watch Silence with the elders quorum only to watch it alone and to have my heart crushed and rolled out to dry. Discovering Return from Calvary along one wall of the BYU MOA and just staring at it fifteen minutes with tears in my eyes. You never know where you will next encounter the power of art.
I’ll be honest that I did not anticipate staring at my computer screen, choked up, as I read criticism of imaginary art. But this is what the submissions to Irreantum‘s new issue, PHONY, did to me. Imagining such art existing—imagining a world where such art could exist—moved me.
I thought PHONY would be a barrel of giggles. And, honestly, it is that as well. The chuckles and the choke-ups lie side by side in many of these pieces.
I don’t know what your experience will be (please tell me!) but I hope, whatever it is, it is more than you expect when you hear we’re giving you an entire issue of reviews of things that do not, alas, exist.
(millennial art! postpunk rock! church-history manga! an elias symphony!)
ps: you could have had access to PHONY last week! consider joining our Patreon to help pay our writers and artists making real work in our real world