Creator Wave Volume 31

Sound Colour Vibration’s Online Art Gallery
Kris Kuksi w/ Q&A

www.kuksi.com

Multi-disciplined and extremely talented artist Kris Kuksi is a person whose works I was immediately shocked by after the initial viewing. The amount of detail and conceptual pictures in his sculptors, paintings and sketches are astounding to say the least. With very deep messages behind his art, he has created a standard for his works that have spread deep around the world with many well known people owning his art in their personal collections.

Kris was born in 1973 in Springfield Missouri and was raised in Kansas where he spent his time refining his techniques and foundations for what would turn into the artist he is today. With 100′s of shows all around and constant expanded exposure from his public displayed items, Kris Kuksi has made a big name for himself for being one of the most unique sculptor artists in the world.

Through countless hours of the highest level of precision, the pieces Kris Kuksi makes are unreal and grab you the second you see them. Kris Kuki’s biography at his website has the following to say about his process and the messages he is conveying through his art.

Kris Kuksi garners recognition and acclaim for the intricate sculptures that result from his unique and meticulous technique. A process that requires countless hours to assemble, collect, manipulate, cut, and re-shape thousands of individual parts, finally uniting them into an orchestral-like seamless cohesion that defines the historical rise and fall of civilization and envisions the possible future(s) of humanity.

Each sculpture embodies the trademarks of his philosophy and practice, while serving as a testament to the multifaceted nature of perception – From timeless iconic references of Gods and Goddess, to challenging ideas of organized religion and morality, to the struggle to understand, and bend, the limits of mortality. None is complete without a final and brilliant touch of satire and rebuke all conceived in the aesthetic essence of the Baroque fused with the modern day industrial world.

We conducted a brief interview with Kris to compliment the art he choose to send us for posting. This is an artist who is dedicated to his craft on the highest of levels and the art he creates reflects this discipline. I would like to give a special thanks to Brandon Jeffries for the recommendation on this artist. We are honored to bring art of this level to Sound Colour Vibration’s online art gallery Creator Wave, enjoy. -Erik Otis

Churchtank Type 7C

The Retreat of Daphne

Ode to Herculaneum

A Heroic Abduction

A Neo-Roman Landscape

Missionary Module 1

Adoration of the Magi

You are currently involved in the group exhibit The New Craftsmanship from Dutch experimental fashion designer Iris van Herpen. That will run until fall of this year at Centraal Museum Utrecht, Netherlands. How did you get involved in this project and what are some of your favorite works from the exhibit?

KK: Iris van Herpen is just a genius, period. I was contacted by Dutch newspaper some time ago about wanting to write an article about how Iris was such a big fan of my work. And now, the Centraal Museum reached out to me about possibly including some of my work along with other artists works she derives her inspiration from. The museum themselves were great to work with and Iris was very generous to help bring a new audience to my creativity. But she is indeed my favorite fashion designer.

There is a huge amount of language spoken in your pieces about society, its history and the dissection of it. What type of significant changes in the world have influenced the latest pieces you have been working on?

KK: Human behavior and psychology in the modern world fascinates me regarding how history repeats itself. We see the patterns of world leaders and their affliction of war and aggressive cycles decade after decade. It is an ugly and basic mental attribute that humans must always fight. Humans appear to always feel as though they can never be content with country borders, minority groups whom they scapegoat their own insecurities upon, and desires to attain material desires beyond necessity. And I just try to relate this in my work as much as possible. It is more about educating through the language of art, that is what artists can contribute to this world, and I hope to be one of those known for doing such a thing.

Do you dedicate your time solely to one piece or do you have a lot of different concepts and works going at the same time?

KK: Many projects at once, however I do focus on one at a time when it gets close to finish time. Plus, there is always new ideas flooding in that are hard to connect through sporadic entry in to my sketchbooks.

Is the process and creation of your art a mental release or a battle of will and temptation?

KK: Not all ideas are good, and it can be a struggle to keep myself focusing on the best ideas that come. I don’t always like the process, and I hate to ever formulate the process, instead give each piece a fresh new approach. Yes, it is a battle. I’ve been known to throw some of my projects across the room in a fit of rage and disappointment. I’ve started major large scale works only to destroy them simply because I just couldn’t continue because of my standards of only creating great pieces. Not every work is great, but at least I can get close. Some flow like magic, as if my head has opened and pure divine inspiration was poured in without much of my own ego involved. I just try to have a good day every day in the studio and not take myself too seriously.

Does your process of creating in various mediums include isolation of other people and noise or do you bring music and other sources of immediate influence into your surroundings when you create?

KK: I am a bit of an isolationist, however, I do have people work for me in the studio on some tasks. I try to stay away from as much outside influence during studio time. I love documentaries and audio books to give my left brain hemisphere something to do while the right side is composing the micro details on the work board. And as far as music, I love very progressive electronic music such as Dubstep and drum and bass genres just to help cancel out my brain waves into a calm serene state.

Through the medium of the arts, there is an ability to define your own personal language and reason for existing unlike anything else. Do you see any major shifts occurring right now in the evolution of art?

KK: Art has dispersed into many directions, even to the point of anti-art. I do believe art can still evolve toward a direction of novelty, that which has not been yet seen. However, I don’t think there is anything wrong with looking at the old masters and reviving the aesthetics of the old world. Fads are great today, but art must always change and grow following the law of nature. Currently, I do think artists are at a crossword of looking back to the past to find that new direction. Unfortunately, these days great works of art and technique can very easily placed to the side and get lost in the modern world of technological hype and reliance on it. It would be a tragedy to lose the mastery that is still available to use, and I just do hope some artists will still paint with real paints and chisel stone and use hand tools for many more decades to come.

What are some of the routines in your life that keep the mechanical nature of the process fluid so your mind doesn’t have anything holding it back?

KK: What is true for me is that I always have to be creating to feel alive or there is a sense of missing my purpose here–it can feel like I just don’t feel like living if I don’t. Work is the path to inner peace and mental stability for me and so I ignore and release my sensitivities to the modern world. Music helps, and spending time with friends to bounce artistic ideas off of are great to stay fresh and alert.

The Churchtank is a work of yours that I wanted to ask you about. What type of situations in life personally and through what you have researched took the highest level of influence to represent this emergence of destruction, power, dominance and war through religion?

KK: The Churchtank is a monument to the ultimate hypocrisy of humanity. Again, it is mankind’s flaws and selfish desires to control and manipulate others for the sake of achieving wealth and material gain. Religion was created to monopolize the path to god. Religions vary throughout the world, yet they all have rules and regulations that go against the free, uninhibited human mind. Reaching god requires a pure state of being that includes self-love and love for all things, humility, and drive for peace and clarity–a spiritual and individual journey, but religion is the doorman collecting the entry fee to the pure gates of heaven.