I am K'rK.
I was born in 1988 under the name Michael Kirklies in Germany, near the city of Hamburg. I grew up as an only child with my single mother in Ottersberg, near Bremen.
What is strenght?
How does it shows itself?
“It became apparent that strength and weakness are very individual and – like the concepts of love or fear – often very difficult to grasp. For me, art is the ideal medium, the perfect “tool” to discover, explore and share this abstract concept of strength – and weakness.”
My childhood and adolescence were marked by lack, limitation and severity. My mother, a trained art therapist, was penniless and often unemployed. She was absent from time to time due to her own difficulties, while my father, also penniless and an unsuccessful musician and writer, was non-existent for me. The result was several stays with foster families and the formative feeling of being alone and weak. I felt on my own, developed a desire for strength and began to take care of myself at an early age.
lack
severity
limitation
waste
of talent
In 2007, I decided to become a police officer, much to the chagrin of my school art teacher, who frustratedly accused me of “wasting talent”. But working as a “protector” was the most tangible and attractive way for me to get closer to strength at the time. I devoted the following years to developing my physical strength. I practised weight training and martial arts intensively, I trained as a paramedic and joined a special unit for close protection. It was clear to me: “If you want to be able to protect others, must be strong himself”
In 2012 I came to a turning point. After years of creative atrophy and external empowerment as a saviour and protector, a downright painful hunger for artistic creation grew. In the following years I devoted my free time to painting again, created collages and experimented with materials and stylistic means until slowly a very own, personal style developed.At the same time, the forms of physical, martial strength I had acquired seemed increasingly too mundane and superficial. They were not deep, not intense enough for me. Above all, my interest moved away from my personal strength to a global, general and philosophical concept of strength.
"Only through weakness can true strength emerge"
This question about the forms of strength ignited a real fire of curiosity in me. I felt the desire to explore and discover, and at the same time I saw the opportunity to give useful meaning to my capacity for fine observation. So I realised for myself that strength is closely related to weakness – Not only as the supposed opposite, but often side by side, depending on the perspective or even as a condition.
adventurer | explorer | artist