Gender-fluid visionary artist and creative Harry Hains would have been 29 years old this past weekend on December 4th. In celebration of his life and his determined belief in inclusivity and compassion, Harry’s ANTIBOY project and vision of a world where everyone can be exactly who they are, free of labels, continues to inspire with the help of his family, friends, and fans. In January, a new ANTIBOY song “Insanity” will be released, produced by Fernando Garibay (Lady Gaga, will.i.am, Sia), along with a stunning music video.
“Insanity” will explore the duality and conflict that can exist within one’s inner and outer worlds when struggling with mental health issues. If you feel a little unsettled watching the ominous energy around in-demand British dancer Leah Marojević, who portrays the subject in the video, that’s the point. In an exclusive statement to Wonderland, the director Agustín Farías shares that we can expect the video’s story to build into “frenetic dance movements, reflecting the descent of a body and mind losing control of its thoughts and feelings.“ The backdrop of empty space in the short clip represents the inner mind, which can often experience a parallel reality to the real world, an idea that the “Insanity” video promises to bring to life in a vivid way.
Adds Agustín, “Harry’s work, through ANTIBOY, goes beyond labels, categories and names, coming up with new terms that can help us imagine what it means to be on Earth, aside from inheriting logic and conventions. Harry left us just before the Coronavirus pandemic, a catastrophe that has brought many people to points of extreme mental illness, and ‘Insanity’ will come out in this moment almost two years later, to help us understand our human conditions better, to know we’re not alone and that spiraling into depths of mental, emotional and cosmic complexity are part of being alive, and not states that need to isolate or separate us from one another.”
Harry’s mother, actress Jane Badler, is the driving force behind Harry’s ANTIBOY project and is a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ community that her son was a part of, as well as for families experiencing addiction, which Harry struggled with.
“Harry wrote the lyrics and it shows the brilliance of his poetry,” shares Jane. “After he passed I came upon diaries filled with writing and poetry. Writing was his way of taking the madness and creating beauty – to try to make sense of what he was going through. ‘Insanity’ is about the mental health of Harry and of all those that suffer with mental health issues. The inability to ask for help and get out of the cycle when caught in the grip of addiction or other mental health issues is one of the signals of someone struggling, and it’s why so many young people end their lives.”
As we turn the page on all that 2021 brought and prepare to begin a new year, Harry Hains’ ANTIBOY continues to remind us that there is hope for a more unified world with a greater understanding and empathy for one another.
Last year on Harry’s birthday, ANTIBOY’s album A Glitch In Paradise was released posthumously, alongside a series of mesmerising visuals that featured animation Harry’s brother Sam Hains, a 3D artist, animator and designer who has also been instrumental in bringing Harry’s artistic vision to life and delivering ANTIBOY to the world. Harry’s artist persona ANTIBOY is a genderless transhuman free of labels, prejudices and social constructs, offering hope for what our future could look like as current cultural conversations swirl around identity, gender, race, and equality. The video for “Dream,” a song on the album, illustrated this vision with a celebration of differences starring transgender model/activist Andreja Pejić and directed by Charlie Chops.
The album also featured “Paradise” and “Good Enough.” Earlier this year, ANTIBOY’s song “One Love” was released in conjunction with a limited-edition T-shirt in partnership with celebrated graphic designer Jason Ebeyer and The Phluid Project to provide support for LGBTQ+ youth. 100% percent of the proceeds went to The Hendrick Martin Institute (HMI), the United States’ largest LGBTQ+ youth services organization. The song was produced by famed super-producers, RedOne and Fernando Garibay who last collaborated on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way album.