I am Kris West. Welcome to the apocalypse.

 

 

The experiences of my relationships with people and myself act as a starting point to creating work. By combining an interest in how we develop recognition of social situations and associated behavior, using illustrative technique, such as instant and comic drawing to capture my immediate thoughts, I am able to reflect upon these issues. Accurate depiction of the physical appearance is less important to me as this is where I can manipulate the image to alter the way the viewer sees the work. I use illustration to reflect aspects of the self, and to explore the relationshipsbetween others and the socio-political concerns we face everyday. By exposing glimpses into a mundane life, personal revelation and reflection 

are illustrated and developed into a more tangible form such as a quip, pun or dialogue. Humour is used to create an open invitation for the viewer by using illustratoion to turn the everyday in to a cartoon. 

The drawings sometimes form the content of short animations that develop a running dialogue concerning where I, and others, fit into the society 

around us.

 

Apolitics Now explores the changing world/society we live in, and so life as we know it, in terms of both dramatic and subtle change. Instead of my usual focus on the individual, specifically myself, I have broadened it out to use others as a catalyst to build a society, introducing how individual, regional and global issues inform changes in the world constantly. I gathered anonymous individual responses in order to gain insights into how individuals within a larger society view the world around them in terms of the everyday or larger scale politics, and how they would change the world for the better, or create their version of a utopia, or in some cases, a dystopia.

 

Through playful illustration and animation (and of course, an excellent sense of humour), I explore the idea of revolution (regarding to dramatic change in 

society or leadership) and how individuals see the continuous cycle of politics and changing issues that affect us, to be reflected in the work (Apolitics Now), a short animation that explores the contrast between today’s society and different ‘worlds’ spawned from the anonymous individual, and the people that may live within them. Power is given back to the anonymous individual and Apolitics Now explores the consequences of the changes that come through ideas and the power behind them.

 

Apolitics Now:

Animation (approx 3 mins on loop)

Set painted furniture (Chair, cup, table x 2)

Painted floor

Reading material