CK Nosun is an anarchist and artist making work that documents struggles for and celebrates the possibility of anti-capitalist and abolitionist futures.
How has your lived experience shaped your practice?
I was invested in art and the art world in my youth, but moved away from those spaces in favour of anarchist organising. After several years, I eventually became interested in art again when I approached it as a tool for strengthening the struggles I care about. At first, this meant doing things like creating banners and demo posters. Eventually I began illustrating moments of local struggle (like street demos), making prints of those illustrations, and giving those prints to some of the people who had been involved. My aim was to recognise and commemorate the importance of peoples’ courage and actions in those moments, and seeing the joy these images brought people gave me the motivation to keep going.
What are some of your biggest influences and motivations in your work? What issues are you passionate about working on?
First and foremost, I want my work to uplift the people I care about and motivate them to keep doing what they’re doing. Second, I want to remind the wider public that there are anonymous individuals and groups of friends, whether they be drug users, (ex-)prisoners, racialised people, street youth, etc. who are dedicating themselves to making the world better for their communities. These are the people I want to be remembered, not the NGOs and superstar activists who get so much credit for social change.
Where are you based and what excites you about the creative community around you?
I recently relocated to Montréal/Tiohtià:ke, Québec, Canada, where I’m fortunate enough to know a handful of people who make work for social struggle, whether that be producing texts, graphic design, or street art. There’s also some infrastructure set-up here to allow people access to useful resources like free printing, sticker making, and risograph.
See more of CK’s work on their website
