Chris Kelly

Artist Statement

Limited. It's a rare occasion that I am forced to make something new. I wrote this 12 years ago...

“We're in the world, not against it. It doesn't work to try to stand outside things and run them that way. It just doesn't work, it goes against life. There is a way but you have to follow it. The world is, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin
No.
“I am not now what I was yesterday, and I am not now what I shall be tomorrow. So you do yourself an injustice to judge me by yesterday, when I have moved on.”
- Freddie Foxxx
Everything that came before this was practice.
Everything that comes after this is progress.
“And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful life is, is from the vantage point of death.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin
I avoid the warmth of company, seeking solitude instead. I create distance, in opposition to strengthening bonds. I become disconnected from my relationships and surroundings, even the most intimate.
“The problem with introspection is that it has no end.”
- Philip K. Dick
Apprehensive to communicate explicitly, my work has become an outlet for antipathetic taboos. It allows me the security needed to confront a perplexed identity. Through exploitation of science fiction tropes, I construct allegorical depictions of personal inner dialogues. It’s a selfish thing.
“I am Self, I am Master, all the rest is Other—outside, below, underneath, subservient. I own, I use, I explore, I exploit, I control. What I do is what matters. What I want is what matter is for.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin
It’s a delusional thing I’m doing. It’s a hypocritical thing I’m doing.

I might feel some of these things still today 12 years later, but I'm as full of shit today as I was back then.