Chasing the Dream of Becoming an Artist

From The Mountain Eagle, August 16, 2024
By Robert Brune

ANDES — This story begins in Cape Town, South Africa, as Anthony Chase finished at university and he did what he describes as a right of passage by going abroad for a year traveling and working on an oil tanker ship. After exploring Europe for this period, Chase returned to S. Africa in 1975 just as the anti-Apartheid movement had been bubbling to a fever pitch. Settling back into adult life, Chase started a communal farm with six friends along the coast, but after a couple of years he realized he had a passion for the film industry. Yearning for the city life back in Cape Town, he returned to study theater because there were no film schools in the city at the time. During this time, Chase had been creating collage books that documented the uprising against the oppression of the time. The one book in his studio from that time is a miraculous document of color, imagery, and writing characterizing the turmoil of a nation demanding change. Chase shared the feeling of the rage of that era in the region. These times are historically known for dehumanizing the native black citizens and his books included very loving and culturally rich images of black families in a way that was frowned upon by the establishment in Cape Town. He participated in protests against the authoritarian government and law enforcement which had serious consequences. As he explains, he wasn’t an initiator but shared in the rage, “I actually got arrested, our house got raided at three in the morning. All my books about the revolution were confiscated by BOSS (The Bureau of State Security). It was like the fascist police.” Chase admires his friends who stayed to carry on the fight, but he needs to follow his passion for working in film. In 1984 he made his way to NYC.