INTERVIEW
Using Your Voice
with Kris Andrew Small
Sydney-based artist and designer Kris Andrew Small creates wonderfully abstract,
energetic and flamboyant pieces using photo-based collage, texture and typography.
His vibrantly unapologetic artwork is the amalgamation of multiple influences and life experiences, and he's no stranger to using his voice and putting his whole self into the
pieces he creates. His work is unequivocally 'Kris'.
Here at Grand Matter, we've always maintained a particular focus and passion for ‘meaningful creativity’; regularly collaborating and working with creatives, brands, charities, and everything in between, to engage with topics and causes that matter most to us. So it’s particularly exciting when we cross paths with an artist like Kris who shares that passion for creating work with purpose.
In addition to a client list consisting of top tier brands and agencies among others, Kris frequently uses his personal creative practice as a platform on which to draw his audience to important social causes – having created works voicing his feelings for topics such as climate change, political campaigning, human rights, and in particular issues surrounding the LGBTQ+ community.
From simplistic yet powerful slogans like ‘Boys Like Boys’, adorned with his trademark squiggles, to extensive commissions like his collaboration with YouTube Music for Pride last year, which highlighted a wide selection of queer musicians through Kris’ type design and collages. As a queer artist himself, the sense of purpose and passion for the LGBTQ+ community in particular is something that has translated through from his personal practice into the types of commissions and collaborations he now regularly works on.
With us currently being smack bang in the middle of LGBTQ+ History Month, we thought it an especially fitting time to chat with Kris about this. We caught up with him to hear all about manifesting the types of commission you want, making work entirely for yourself, and what it’s like using your artistic voice to create work with purpose.
Was it a conscious choice to put so much of yourself into your work?
I honestly think I was really insecure for such a long time. I always hid being gay because I wasn’t comfortable with it. I also was not a very good ‘conventional' designer, so I feel like I was also kinda pretending in my career as well. All of a sudden I just couldn’t do it anymore, it was exhausting. I made a choice to stop caring completely how others would perceive me or my work and just did what I wanted. The irony is that’s when people started to like my work. I think a lot of creatives would agree with me in me saying that they feel like their work is a part of them. I very much feel that way.
L-R: Personal piece by
Kris / A piece from Kris' collaboration with Oreo for Pride last year.
Have you always used your creative practice as a means to discuss important topics and issues? How did that first come about?
I think in the beginning I was doing it subconsciously. I was making work and I didn’t really know what to make, so I'd just make work based on how I felt about things in the world. If I was annoyed I made really messy texture works, if I wanted to say something about an issue I made a type poster, and if I wanted to just play and meet someone, I made one of the collages. Now I am more conscious of it for sure and try to think about what my work is doing in the bigger picture.
I think it’s also important to make work sometimes that is just work, you know, it doesn’t always need to deal with really big issues, it can be just work for my own enjoyment. That’s easy to forget, that you started out doing this for yourself and because you enjoy it, I always remind myself of that.
"
I’ve also seen just how much things have changed since I came out; I don’t think that happened by just sitting still and
shutting up.
– Kris Andrew Small
Why is this aspect of your practice so important to you
as an artist?
I almost see it as my responsibility. I’ve been given a lot of amazing opportunities so far in my career, and I would find it really hard to not use those to try and bring the queer community forward. I’ve also seen just how much things have changed since I came out; I don’t think that happened by just sitting still and shutting up. There are still so many vulnerable and repressed people in the Queer community. I’m by far one of the lucky ones, and that comes with some guilt, but I try to channel that guilt into raising awareness of those who are more repressed than I.
Kris' work for the GAY TIMES Honours awards
last year.
Many of these kinds of projects are self initiated. Do you find that they also inform your commercial practice?
Well yes, I am such a believer in manifestation and showing people what you can do. Also I am just really restless a lot of the time. So I get bored waiting and figure I may as well do it myself. I studied film for a while and I hated that I had to rely on so many people all the time.
As an artist/designer I can literally just sit here alone and make work without having to rely on anybody else. I can make work in a jungle with pen and paper, or on an airport floor with just my computer, that is quite liberating to me. I was in New York a few years ago, and I was staying in a hotel by myself, each day I would draw these doodles on the little note pad and pen they always put on the desk in hotels. I ended up selling a few. It was cool to know that even though I had my computer I could just make some work with what was available.
L-R: Artwork taken from a commission for Dazed X Adidas / Series of playlist covers Kris designed for YouTube for Pride last year.
How does it feel to be using your platform in this way?
I find it really empowering. I used to be so so so insecure about being gay, I honestly think I spend the first 20 years of my life playing a character that wasn’t me. Now I don’t have to. Thats incredibly liberating, so yeah I second guess myself and feel vulnerable putting it out there sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade that for 17 year old Kris.
Photo of Kris' installation 'We will get through this together'.
About Kris Andrew Small
Sydney based artist & designer, Kris Andrew Small, creates abstract, energetic and flamboyant pieces using photo-based collage, texture and typography. He has collaborated with a broad range of clients including Adobe, Nike, Samsung and Sydney Opera House.
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