Things that do more than just go "bump" in the night
Following in Halloween spirit, this art will not only cause some goosebumps, but will make a deep and profound impact on your soul, and expose you to some areas of weirdness that you never knew existed.
Art of Kris Kuksi falls in that category: wildly unpredictable and rich creations, ominous in their very amount of detail, often "unspeakable" in a very Lovecraft-ian way, pregnant with the idea that perhaps the world is more twisted than most artists care to admit. Something that Philip K. Dick might have conjured in his worst moments of battling the "demons of the mind", or Medieval Architects would aspire to, if they were given more creative freedom.
Visit Kris's website to see more (some images may be nsfw). We asked Kris some questions and he kindly agreed to answer Dark Roasted Blend, and provided us with some additional imagery:
An Exclusive Interview with Kris Kuksi, The Master of Grotesque
"The Deadly Sins", click to enlarge
"The Deadly Sins", details
DRB How long have you been doing this, and how do you define your genre?
Kris I started my first one in 2004 called "Parasite and Host", and from there they have evolved into what I call an appropriated onslaught of shit put together that otherwise shouldn't be together in order to create a physical world of what is in my head.
DRB Any connection with works of Hieronymus Bosch, Lovecraft, Clive Barker?
Kris Bosch was an early favorite of mine, perhaps more so than anyone else. He was well ahead of his time or perhaps he could see more than the other artists at the time.
"A New Divinity", with detail
"The Macabre Ride", click to enlarge
"His works share his thoughts on psychological issues, religious ideology, and aesthetics. Yet he never strays from the honesty within himself though he has had to shed many masks in order to do so. He finds the materialistic world of popular culture as the food for self-indulgence, self-escapism, and shallow-heartedness. Kuksi is obsessed with exposing the illusions we created as a result of fear in our minds..."
"The Decision", detail
"A Surrealist's Carnival", detail
"A Surrealist's Carnival", detail
DRB What kind of "mixed media" do you use in your sculptures?
Kris Mixed media is a very simplified term for what materials I use, but the list would be to long for this interview. I use "things". These things are pre-fabricated, injection-molded, press-molded, mass-produced, kitschy, weird stuff all brought together in a very articulated way that involves imagination, skill, math, craftsmanship, paint, and lastly, magic.
DRB Do you model them on the computer first?
Kris No, it is all built in my head first, but the detailing and such is improvised while I build. There are hundreds of possible ways of bringing these things together, but they must have the appeal of a flowing composition with visual balance and an overall pleasing look.
"The Arrival", detail
"The Arrival", detail
"He decides to see things differently in attempts to challenge the perspectives and ways of seeing that society, religion, parents, and governments want us to. He believes all walks of life, all people, all creatures are equal and it is selfish of us to characterize, judge, and punish those we feel are inferior to us. Kuksi wishes that his viewers will at least see things a different way even if it is only a brief while..."
"Lies & Persuasion", detail
"He soon discovered his distaste for the typical and popular culture of American life and felt that he had always belonged to the "Old World". In personal reflection, he feels that mankind of the West today is an elastic and fragile being driven primarily by greed and materialism."
"Palace of Hedonism", click to enlarge
"Palace of Hedonism", detail
DRB What are creative influences in your work? books? artists? music?
Kris I really don't know what inspires me other than patterns. Patterns in the existing world such as symmetry or harmony in both organic or non-organic materials. The patterns in music can give me great visual imagination, but mostly I seek pleasing arrangements of forms whether it be man made or not. But of course, the everyday world of humanity influences me, politics, religion, psychology, etc.
DRB Are you happy with creative environment around you? art business?
Kris The world today isn't suited very well for the long process of creating art. The thinking, the ideas, the production time, are challenging while the world around you moves so fast. I just learn to adapt to the world no matter how unfriendly it can be to artists. The art business in my experience has been both good and bad. Some galleries and agents have good intentions and are loyal in representing artists, while others use artists mostly for monetary gain rather than the preservation of art. The value of art these days is small in comparison to that of centuries ago. The artist tells the story of what life was like, and it would be interesting to see what humans will think about what was being made during our time right now. I just hope to be a voice that will be heard for centuries to come.
"The House of Fascism"
"The House of Fascism", detail
"Culture-Cleansing Machine", detail
"Culture-Cleansing Machine", detail
DRB Any particular plans for the coming year?
Kris I'll have a major solo show in June of next year, around 20 works. I also plan to put out my first book next year. And I imagine still collecting my oddities and the occasional dead animal.
DRB Tell us three things about you that not many people know.
Kris First, I'm an electric guitar virtuoso in the style of neo-classical shredding, popularized by noted guitar players such as Yngwie Malmsteen. I rarely do any public performances or play in bands, I use it mostly to seduce women-ha! Second, I have double-jointed shoulder blades with which I can extrude outwards, though I never use this to seduce women. Third, I was an alter boy in the Catholic Church years ago, that alone will seduce anyone.
Kris Kuksi works in a variety of styles and media. His "Church Tank" modification we featured before, and here is an example of his "Fantastic Realism" work:
"Psychotropic Comparative Anatomy"
Moving from the "surrealist-turned-philosopher" creations of Kris Kuksi, which pack enough visual punch to merit a repeated viewing, let's see what's done in the field of grotesque steampunk sculpture, namely -
Fire-breathing Robots of Lance Greathouse
RaceGreathouseLabs builds fire-breathing monsters, some of which might've stepped straight out of the nightmarish works of Kris Kuksi. At first they built battle bots for "Robot Wars", but moved into fire-enhanced creations for the "Burning Man" Events:
"The Sandman" - a 10 foot long, walking and fire-shooting robotic machine:
Jumping spiders, flaming bots and unnamed "things" inhabit the Greathouse Labs, providing lots of overheated excitement:
Terminator-like entities haunt the grounds:
Wicked-looking battle bots and robot crawlers lurk in the garage, the walking cannons scurry around like mechanized chickens:
Imagine meeting this thing somewhere in the country field in the middle of the night... You just might become a connoisseur of "grotesque" for the rest of your life.
I just want to say your blog is very good. So you know you have a loyal reader , at least in RSS. I do not post very often but I read your posts. See ya.
I found that fantastic photo of the Korean sleep schoolgirls on the metro and want very much to include it in my art exam concentration. where can I ask for the permission?
The "bugs" around the doritos bag area kind of sea crab, actually called Moreton Bay Bugs, found in Coastal Aussie restaurants and upmarket fish and chip shops.....oh, and in the supermarket too at xmas.
M&M's were developed to give soldiers a way to have chocolate without it melting. That's where the old slogan came from. Bars were also inconvenient to carry. Away went the bar, in came "pan coated chocolates", M&M's.
On your Copper Canyon photo, when my family came down from Alaska in June of 1965, we drove from Anchorage to White Horse, Yukon then put our Volks camper on a flatbed railcar of the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad to Skagway, AK. It followed the GoldRush Trail of 1898 through the mountains and in place you could still see the steps worn into the rocks. The RR is running again but only to the Canada border from Skagway.
Back in the '70s I discovered that my '49 Ford pickup could ride the rails by slightly deflating the bias ply tires. Her creeper gear allowed us to leisurely cruise abandoned rail lines at 5 to 10 mph. The great thing was that it required only minimal attention from the driver.I only wish there was a system in place allowing us to similarly travel the highways. I would gladly give up some control of my vehicle in exchange for being able to pay attention to the scenery, or the newspaper, or my co-passengers.
To your "Truly a Light Rail Vehicle" i can say that the first and third are Simson Schwalbe KR51/1 (aka Simson Swallow) build in the German Demokratic Republic. The second is a Simson Star, also build in GDR.
About that Volkswagen Bus: This is not some sort of "homegrown" conversion, they were produced in series equipped this way. The German railway company Deutsche Bundesbahn ordered some dozens of these (about 60 units, iirc). Some of them still roam around at several transportation museums or historic railways.
The german so-called "Schi-Stra-Bus", the red bus shown on the pictures courtesy of mibaone.de, was not only used between the towns of Siershahn and Montabaur. 15 of these were brought into use in 1953 and 1954. They were used on several routes, partly on rails and partly on roads, e. g. between Passau and Cham. However, most of the connections were cancelled by the late 50ies, early 60ies, since the conversion between road and rail was rather time-consuming (10-15 Min.) and improvements to the road-network made all-road connections more competitive. The last "Schi-Stra-Bus"-route, Betzdorf - Koblenz trough the Westerwald-mountains, lasted till 1967. One bus, the one shown above, is preserved.
More information (in German) on site linked to my name above.
The William Glover photo of the 1951 Chevrolet track inspection car is actually from the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway in Arkansas, though it is pretty close to Missouri.
A spruce goose is an airplane, the D&RGW #2 pictured is the combination of a Pierce Arrow car body with a box car, and is known to the railroaders as a "Motor". This is evident by the 2 foot tall letters on the side that say "Motor"
To rail fans and the people of Colorado these marvels of necessity are called a "Galloping Goose"
The second picture of the '55 Chevy Bel Air is very interesting, because the boxcars in the background have buffers. So the pictures is most likely taken somewhere in Europe. That leaves the question, if the car was used by a european (state) railroad, or by the United State Army Transportation Corps?
These last photos of a Russian Army "URAL" truck probably are the tests of "Unitsky's String Transportation system". Possibly it might use hi-voltage wires as a string/rail, but on the polygon these things are only tubes. Here's the link to their site. http://www.unitsky.ru/ (translate yousing google translate, yeah). Also I'm quite sure, that these photos with a truck were not taken in Siberia, because the only testing polygon was in Ozery (South east of Moscow district, not far from Kolomna). I visited it in 2009 with a friend of mine, it was ruined a bit... I think there is no studies of this system now... Also Dr.Yunitsky is not very popular in Russian Scientific Society... So I don't thing that someone in Russia would like to give money for this. And a few tricks. Youngsters that we met in Ozery didn't know, where the Yunitsky Transportation System is. But they knew, where there is a "tower":))) Bonus: video from this "tower":)) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea9lk6p9CaA
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5 Comments:
kuksi is the future of art, absolute magic. - thanks for the great interview and profile DRB
adam unknown
And no mention of HR Giger as a possible influence? Are you f-ing kidding me?
Amazing!
Wow
The amount of detail is very impressive! Thanks for the pictures DRB!
Great! I'm delighted.
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