Founded by painter Stevie Anderson, Endless Joy sells Bali-inspired bowling shirts which support the creative community of the Indonesian island
- TextBen Perdue
- What is it? Endless Joy, an art project and label founded by Stevie and Alexandra Anderson
- Why do I want it? Bali-inspired shirts printed with gods and monsters, florals and jungle foliage, which support the creative community of the Indonesian island, where the collections are made
- Where can I find it? Online at Browns Fashion, Matches Fashion and Mr Porter, as well as at the brand’s online store
What is it? “The Balinese don’t have a word for art, they don’t need one,” explains painter Stevie Anderson. “They try to be totally engaged and present with art in everything they do, and everything they do is raised to its level.” The same can be said for the label he founded, Endless Joy, with its collections that double as a walking canvas for exploring the strange mythologies of Bali and beyond.
It’s a long way from northern English seaside town Redcar to Bali, from Anderson’s childhood home to his spiritual one, but the journey has been more personal than geographical. Arriving there to expand his art practice having worked as a cobbler and postman up north, followed by unfulfilling creative roles in London, he discovered a culture shrouded in mystery and symbolism. “I became more open-minded, more available to the unknown, and as my life changed so did my work,” he says.
“Endless Joy wasn’t planned; I was developing a new series of paintings for an exhibition when the shirts came about. They seemed to take on a life of their own, so I let them do their thing. Printing it on garments enabled the work to connect and engage with people directly while moving around in the world, no longer confined to a wall or the internet.”
Why do I want it? Anderson has a rule: if a print could make it onto someone’s wall, it could make it onto one of his aloha shirts. They make the perfect platform for his detailed depictions of gods and monsters, as the expected florals and jungle foliage take on a more subversive character up close. “Because sometimes you need the power of a Balinese demon for strength,” he says. The silk shirt remade as psychic armour.
Endless Joy is UK-based, but supporting the vibrant creative community of Bali, where the collections are made, and sharing the wisdom and life force of Balinese culture is fundamental. Its history and folklore sparked a deeper investigation of symbolism that led Anderson through the origins of art and human consciousness. His work captures dream logic seeping into everyday life, painting personal mythologies into reality alongside local spirits and Greek heroes. Meanwhile, his subconscious is processing visual and mental stimuli from researching gnosticism, alchemy and the psychomagic teachings of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
“The history of myth is the history of human culture,” he says. “It is the story of our collective psyche, archetypes of human struggle played out in symbolic form over thousands of years, right back to the earliest cave art. Before psychology we had mythology. It was a way of making sense of the world, it exposed the human condition and helped form our moral virtues.”
The word ‘taksu’ is used in Bali to describe the profound essence or unsayable enigmatic quality we all feel in the presence of great art, and its positive influence on the wider-reaching inspiration for Endless Joy is clear. “Only by understanding where we come from through art, mythology and history can we start to form new mythologies for the future,” says Anderson, “that better connect us to each other.”
Where can I find it? Online at Browns Fashion, Matches Fashion and Mr Porter, as well as at the brand’s online store.
