I’m a London-born artist and writer. I taught literature and drama in East Anglia and Madrid before settling in York. I achieved an MA in Fine Art in 2020 and joined a working studio and gallery where I instituted community events and a mentoring scheme for young emerging artists. I’m also a freelance editor, and an interest in text informs much of my art. My work has been selected for a number of online and actual publications and exhibitions.
My practice is influenced by the impact of time, nature and people on the environment, by myth, theatre and poetry, and by current issues. Drawings explore surfaces, responding to their underlying images and stories, and feed further work. Collages recycle and repurpose, finding value in the unloved and the discarded as a metaphor for remedy. Texts might be transformed into visual art by creative analytical processes such as word mapping.
I am a co-founder of Navigators Art, a cross-disciplinary group of creatives who engage in community projects as well as devising theme-based events in and around York.
website; https://linktr.ee/richardkitchen https://linktr.ee/navigatorsart
Facebook and Instagram; @richardkitchenart @navigatorsart
1 - Could you explain your practice? Only you know why you do what you do.
I frequently dream of a vast decrepit old building. It’s usually different each time, in a different location, and the means by which I arrive there are seldom the same; but it’s always a maze of levels, corridors and side rooms which all contain distractions, tangents, temptations and new stories. I make my way through them in search of something: usually the last piece of the jigsaw in finishing a project under pressure, often a theatre production. The building is peopled by figures from my past and present who are vividly ‘real’ but whom I cannot usually identify after waking.
My professional career began very happily, teaching literature and drama in the UK and Spain, but the last couple of decades have been full of interruptions, diversions and frustrations which have left work incomplete and goals unrealised. My dream seems to be about trying to fulfill an unfinished purpose; and although the process is akin to walking a tightrope I think it’s telling me not to abandon the hope of doing so.
In the real world, art is proving to be the means by which it happens. It’s probably no accident that I began to make collages. They combine many activities that I enjoy creatively: drawing, painting, poetry, photography, and mark-making as movement; and they construct a coherent whole from fragments and scraps. Perhaps like Frankenstein, I’m trying to piece together something that can achieve what’s previously eluded me: possibly finding an alter ego for myself in bits and pieces of the past. I’m aware that in the last two or three years I’ve pretty much reinvented myself in terms of who I am, what I do, and how I engage with the world. I’ve had to rewrite my narrative in order to move forward and find a new purpose. That’s my own metamorphosis. But I think there’s a political and social metaphor there too.
2 - Is art relevant today?
More so than ever. The arts are where the mind and imagination can regenerate and recover from a world of stress, fear, division, and conflict; one that is threatened by stagnant, outmoded systems of government and industry. But I don’t mean they are escapists. They can also make that world better, by responding to it creatively. Creating is an act of positivity. As an artist, whatever your medium or subject matter, you are bringing something new into the world; and as an audience member, you are privileged to receive it, share it, and be moved by it. Things are reflected and interpreted by someone with an outlook that may differ from your own but from which you might learn, be it a new technique or a new way of looking; even a new notion of how to judge what you encounter. The arts encourage a way to find solutions through experimentation and learning from mistakes, and they are essential to our mental health. They should be central to all educational structures in every country of the globe, and provision for them should be made mandatory in workplaces and practices for the well-being of employees.
3 – We are always asked what other artists influence us, we want to know what art you don’t like and which influences you?
Dislikes: art that needs an essay to justify it; art that looks better with the artist standing in front of it; art made only for money; art that insults its viewers; art that trends; art that is one-dimensional; art that thinks it’s better than everybody else.
Influences: art with layers, depth, and texture; comic and book illustrations; art that deconstructs and reinterprets; art that is playful; art that experiments and takes risks; art that writes poetry; art that whispers as well as shouts; art that doesn’t lie.
A few influential names: J-M Basquiat, Hannah Höch, Paul Klee, Robert Rauschenberg, Paula Rego, Tom Phillips … I don’t really like listing favourites, it’s too exclusive.
4- If you could go back 10-20 years what would you tell your younger self?
Give yourself time to get things right, but recognise when something is making you unhappy. Admit it to yourself and escape from it. And know your enemies.
5 – If you could go forward 10-20 years what do you hope to have done or not done?
I’d like to have made a name for myself as a practitioner but also to have established a reputation for Navigators Art as a key contributor to community projects and the improvement of wellbeing for all. A few commissions would be handy as well!
