Sunday, 29th of March, 2015
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| Photo of The Kingdom Of Choke In Progress |
Stephen Morton reflects on his book of drawings 'The Kingdom Of Choke' from 2012,
his time in art college, a continuing fascination with old/bald men who inspired the work and on finishing the book as a short film with Peter Lawlor
In March 2011 I started a book of drawings whilst studying illustration in Scotland. The class was given a personal project as part of the course. I decided to delve into the creation of a book of drawings that eventually became ‘The Kingdom Of Choke’.
Becoming familiar with Henry Darger around this time, his story was enigmatic both perplexing and inspiring at the same time. Henry Darger was what is considered as an Outsider Artist who spent most of his life living a quiet life working as a janitor in a hospital in Chicago. After his death a 15,145 page manuscript was found in his flat, the manuscript was called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. The illustrations in the book are ripe with detail but also possess this incredible energy which is hard to find. The story of Darger really resonated with me as it has for a lot of artists over the years since he was discovered. The content of Dargers work didnt really interest me more so the essence of his creation and what it meant, the idea of the solitary monk like figure working away on his drawings seemed more appealing than the complete contrary dogged frenetic commercial push of the college.
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| Henry Darger : Wiki |
Dargers story also rang true with an essay I picked up on earlier that year. The essay was by a Norwegian Philosopher named Peter Wessel Zapffe. In his essay 'The Last Messiah' Zapffe constructs the idea of Remedies Against Panic, these remedies propose that we as humans artificially limit our consciousness to help deal with what he describes as 'cosmic panic', he compares this to the antlers of an Irish Elk who when its antlers grow too large weighs down the creatures head pinning it to the cold murky ground eventually causing it to die from starvation or panic. In the case of humans we choose to break off these antlers which is our consciousness thus the artificial limiting. Sublimation described as one of these remedies, the one I felt pertained to myself the most and which plays into the idea of transformation, pretty much summed up Darger for me
"...sublimation, is a matter of transformation rather than repression. Through stylistic or artistic gifts can the very pain of living at times be converted into valuable experiences. Positive impulses engage the evil and put it to their own ends, fastening onto its pictorial, dramatic, heroic, lyric or even comic aspects."
The premise for creating the book of drawings was finding out a truth as to why I wanted to make art in the first place and I felt now I could push all the pettiness of college and society behind me and concentrate on something that was true to me and that was creating positive impulses from the sheer dread of existence. The idea of sublimation, transformation coupled with Darger and also a self sufficient Finnish dancer named Elis Sinisto reinforced the alluring romanticism of a hermetic existence which started to give way to this book of drawings I called 'The Kingdom Of Choke' which I spent a year or so illustrating.
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| Drawing of Elis Sinisto (2011) |
I got to around 150 pages which was far off Henry Darger's 15,145 pages but it felt good to get it down. Before starting the book I had developed a very refined way of drawing, however for 'The Kingdom Of Choke' I threw away all my preconceived notions in developing a style and tried to draw in my rawest most immediate form. I felt freed from the common cosmetic inclinations by creating something that strayed away from any obvious trend.
After finishing the book there was no clear idea what to do with it. I wanted people to see it, like the way a kid proudly unveils a shit on the carpet to its parents, an artist must do the same. I had drawn all the images both back and front of the pages in the book, there was no way of framing or displaying them really, it was too fragile to leave out in view for people to paw through and the resources weren't there to make a reproduction. After awhile I got to watching Roland Topor and Rene Laloux's 'Les Temps Morts', the film blends animation by Roland Topor with real life stock footage that is narrated over. The topic is about the cycle of violence in humanity which leads to war and crime, ending in the death penalty. This kind of short animation/visual essay i thought would be perfect for The Kingdom Of Choke so i toyed around with the idea for awhile. Eventually I came back to Ireland and and asked Peter Lawlor to help with working on a soundtrack. I wrote an accompanying text touching on the ideas of sublimation and transformation and layered it over the animation and the soundtrack.
The short animation of the Kingdom Of Choke went through two drafts, one version was played at the Moot Art and Music Festival in 2013 in Kilkenny, It then sat idle for awhile before i made some adjustments and the soundtrack was finished.
The Kingdom Of Choke (2013)
Animation Written and Drawn by Stephen Morton
Music by Peter Lawlor.
The Kingdom Of Choke OST
Soundtrack to The Kingdom Of Choke by Peter Lawlor
Track Listings:
1. The Kingdom Of Choke 1
2. The Kingdom Of Choke 2
Produced and Mastered by Peter Lawlor.
Download All here (1.46gb) here
Download PDF book here
Download OST here
Watch here
