Kitt Buch

Kitt Buch - A visual fairytale teller

Interview and portrait of Louise Jørgensen
Published on Magasinet Kunst's website on 28 April 2020

Figurative, colourful and fascinating. Frightening, ongoing and strangely present. Such is Kitt Buch's antagonistic fairy-tale landscape. A universe filled to the brim with surreal cartoon creatures, fantastic tales full of symbolism, flower wreaths and skulls. Flesh, death and nuclear bombs. Missiles, gas masks and eye flowers in one beautiful, terrifying and twisted combination, in the middle of picturesque landscapes worthy of a Jane Austin novel. We're right here, right there, in between your world, mine, and ours as we know it and as we've never seen it before. All at the same time. In other words, it's a blast when you let your eyes explore Kitt Buch's magical world of pop surrealism, romance and social criticism. Let me introduce: @kittbuch.

The corona crisis came knocking, the world is still uncertain and many are still sitting alone – separately. Your usual art institution and the gallery around the corner are closed. The streets are deserted, the sofas crawl up on our backs, the home office is messy, the kids get bored and we close ranks in the small, safe communities and cultivate the close relations, while we dream of a summer party, a carefree day in Tivoli or a trip to Louisiana. Or maybe it's just me?

Corona Art Staff
But while the world as we know it remains closed, social media suddenly takes on a role worthy of its own name. Here, social communities abound, trying to make up for the thirst for skin many are beginning to feel. Live sessions with health care providers, online motherhood groups, live studio concerts, free creative offerings, online training, cooking and art suddenly emerge. Yes, let's not forget the arts!

The latter is something that I am increasingly becomming more aware of in these past few weeks. And perhaps you are too?! Now that we are sitting alone, separately, looking after each other – especially the weakest in our society – perhaps we could use this absurd, frightening and unfamiliar situation to take a closer look at a few artists whose art we can continue to enjoy at a proper distance across social media. We can call it a Corona art relay? This week, the baton has landed with Kitt Buch and her figurative, surrealist universe.

Home is where the adventure is
As a child, Kitt Buch (36) and her family moved often. So it wasn't really until she landed in Copenhagen as an adult that she got the sense of "home" as being attached to a particular place. Now Kitt has a home in Copenhagen.

While the site-specific home was waiting, Kitt sought refuge in another home — or rather, a universe that allowed her to dream bigger than this world, feel more than she could explain and think thoughts that exceeded the rationale. The library was her second home. Here she sat for hours, engulfed in the imaginative worlds of books, as an escape from reality when the world around her seemed difficult or simply colorless.

Kitt wasn't the only one in the family with a penchant for good stories. Her grandmother also took pride in the oral storytelling tradition, which is why she filled Kitt with her memeries from World War II, ghost stories, fairy tales and myths from another time. But also comics and films that Kitt can see and recognize today in her artistic universe. And the imagination and adventure follow Kitt in everything she does – also in her description of one of her many childhood homes, which most of all sounds like the essence of the artist child's oasis:

"I remember how my room with the yellow walls with ceiling to kip was filled with drawing and painting equipment and books everywhere. Along the walls, under the bed, in piles and scattered across the floor. My drawings were plastered up on the slanted walls. The view from my room was of fields and the little road that led past our house. Far out in the countryside."

The Way
In 2015, Kitt completed her bachelor's degree in textiles, design and crafts from Håndarbejdets Fremme. She already had a self-paid design degree from Margrethe School and felt equipped to launch and establish an avant-garde clothing brand, creating and producing clothes in red, black and white.

Also as a designer, the drama was in focus, and it was during the same period that the gas masks began to fascinate Kitt in earnest – an image and symbol that is recurring in her works to this day. But as the clothing company developed, it suddenly became clear to Kitt that it was art and the creative process that had her heart. Her husband also noted that she was far from happy in her work as a designer, which is why, alongside her business, she began painting colorful watercolours. Slowly, the watercolours took up more time and the textiles less:

"On 31 December 2016, I finally left the design company, and on 1 January 2017 I woke up as a visual artist on more or less full time. I had no idea how manage in the new environment. I didn't really know other visual artists. The first thing I did was join art fairs across the country, hoping to get further out with my art. Since then, I have spent a lot of time forming a network, going to openings and seeking exposure through as many channels as possible."

Kitt was successful with her plan. Time, dedication and passion resulted in her joining Art Nordic shortly afterwards and in 2018 getting a studio space in Galleri Kbh Kunst by the Lakes in Copenhagen.

The art, the noise & the inspiration
For some artists, art is a nag that haunts them; a gruelling process that they can't live without, but which almost kills them. For others, the artistic process is a sanctuary filled with possibility, play and ease. For the vast majority of creative artists, it's probably a mix. For Kitt, art brings a peace she has long lacked in her life. Throughout her adult life, the need for immersion and inner life has grown, while the need for social legitimation has diminished. Yet Kitt knows both the paintings that almost paint themselves and those that require crisis help along the way.

In January, she spent three weeks painting non-stop on a single painting: "On Point" (100×80 cm). Kitt says that under normal circumstances she works on several works at the same time, but this one required all her energy and focus. After the three weeks she was so annoyed and angry that she was not nice to be around and only when the last brushstroke had hit the canvas did she realized how much focus the painting had demanded of her:

"My protagonist is sewing a man's suit that will clearly be too big for her. If you look closely, you can see that it says 'too big' on the back of it. Behind her hangs laundry. A treacherous red sock has dyed the white shirt pink. A kind of quiet, frustrated rebellion against the laundry itself, acting as a commentary on the 'lot in life' of women."

Often Kitt simply makes a loose sketch or has a loosely defined story she'd like to get out of her head. Therefore, the inspiration also comes from several places, and they live their lives together on the canvas:

"My inspiration is a great conglomeration of books I've read; films and series I've watched; music I've listened to. I'm fascinated by World War I prosthetics and vintage photos, and I treasure my childhood memories and a treatment of emotions - the latter of which I've been in touch with during the Corona crisis. Inspiration also comes from science and especially from the myths that have shaped us all: The ones we tell again and again, uncritically, and sometimes with a smile on our face. These are the myths we have all grown up with and which shape the things we believe for different reasons."

Kitt uses historical references and cultural artifacts as "breadcrumbs" with which to give small hints to the viewer. She emphasizes that she is fascinated by the symbols that are meaningful across cultures, times and religions. Symbols that have a historical and cultural ballast. For example, the eye, as a universal symbol - from Christianity, to the Egyptian god RA, to the mirror of the soul and iIluminati. But also a number, the particular position of a flower or a constellation, each of which adds another layer, another possibility of interpretation and another frame of reference.

The Clown Girl and the Skeleton Bird
Kitt doesn't remember when she created her first work, but she clearly remembers when her main character saw the light of day. It happened in 2016, when she participated for the first time in a group exhibition at a small gallery, far out in the country. This was also the first time she created a body of work whose narrative was not limited to the individual piece, but rather ran like a thread through the seven works in the exhibition, which were titled 'Oblique Thoughts'. This first exhibition was the birth of 'The Clown Girl', a protagonist who continues to follow Kitt to this day and who is clearly recognisable by her enormous hair that seems to defy the law of gravity. The work that started it all is titled 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush':

"This series of works told the story of how the skeleton bird and the Clown Girl became friends, but also of how they slowly became alianated to each other."

For Kitt, alienation is a firm companion. Both for herself and for her regular "protagonist", as Kitt herself describes her, the Clown Girl. Kitt sees and experiences alienation from human relationships with itself, with nature, technology and society.

In "Watching the world fall apart," we see how the Clown Girl nonchalantly looks as the world collapses around her. A zeppelin is in free fall towards the ground, there is poison in both bottle and cup. A periscope in the lake keeps an eye on the scenario. A critical look at society, perhaps? Kitt is open to interpretations. The small wooden figure with sausage nose in the bottom left, started as a comic input, but has since found its way into other works. So maybe it means more than first thought?

"The narrative in this painting, as well as in the majority of my other work, is both "just" a story that contains fragments of everything I carry with me in my luggage while also commenting on what is happening around us in the world. Or perhaps rather; it is a series of possible stories combined with a number of possible comments on the world. In this way, it is really about what happens in the viewer in the encounter with my work."

Artists you should know
I asked Kitt which artists inspire her. Since there were several on the list that I need to check out myself, I thought it appropriate to share them here:

"One artist I follow myself is Mark Ryden. His way of telling stories through art is a great inspiration to me. He is immediately the "father of pop surrealism".

"Another is Gerda Wegener - especially because of her colors and figures, and her own story of painting her husband over and over again, as the transgender woman Lili Elbe.

I would also mention Otto Dix, a German painter I discovered a few summers ago when I was passing through Innsbruck and happened to see an exhibition at the Tiroler Landesmuseum. His portraits of grotesque events during the First World War and of people he met during his lifetime made a great impression on me. I would also like to highlight Wilhelm Freddie's surreal and grotesque portrayal of the world, which I first became acquainted with at the Silkeborg Museum when I was 14 years old on a school trip. Last, but far from least, I would point to the Dada artist Claude Cahun and her expressive photographic self-portraits."

Art as a way of life
Like many younger artists, Kitt uses Instagram to invite her followers, galleries or potential buyers into her studio, her process and her world. Here she shows the process behind her works and posts photographs from her exhibitions. Kitt considers Instagram, as an important tool to connect with other artists, galleries and clients outside Denmark. It is her experience that buyers engage more personally with her art now that they can follow her and her universe over social media. It's about a special "connection", as Kitt herself puts it.

Kitt's art is an obvious opportunity to get some colour, imagination, adventure and social criticism within the west at a time that may require just that. A warm recommendation from here.

In addition to Instagram, you can explore Kitt's works on her website and also see them live at Galleri Kbh Kunst. She will also be part of Galleri Kbh Kunst's summer group exhibition, which opens on 16 May 2020.

Read more on the gallery's website.

Galleri Kbh Kunst, Øster Søgade 34, Kbh K.

Link to the article on Magasinets Kunst's website: http://www.magasinetkunst.dk/Home/Detail/MTU0NDI%3d

Link to Louise Jørgensen's Instagram profile: https://www.instagram.com/thekammas/

Kitt Buch - A visual fairytale teller