Search This Blog

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Great piece on PopSandBox's graphic novel & interactive doc, Kenk: Stealing to save the world | Art Threat

Kenk is indeed a giant windbag who doesn’t suffer fools, or for that matter anyone who disagrees with his outlook on life – that is, a kind of Robinhood social Darwinist eco-warrior melange that doesn’t quite add up. He’s caustic, unapologetic and clearly looking out for number one: himself.

Yet behind that veneer is a complex character, a former policeman from “communist shithole” who is shocked and dismayed by throw-away culture in the West. His business of recuperating old “junk” is not only his means of survival in a quickly gentrifying city, but is the tangible manifestation of his philosophic stew mentioned above. And it’s also a means of justifying dealing in stolen “junk bikes.”

Excerpt:

"The story follows Toronto’s notorious bike thief Igor Kenk as he talks about his past in Slovenia, waxes philosophic on the suicidal and absurd Western lifestyle and runs his infamous bike shop in the Trinity Bellwoods Park neighbourhood of Toronto."

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

No comments: