Kirsten Nastasi

My showcase expresses through metaphors the message that life is a journey in which we walk along unsteady paths and find beauty amidst our daily struggles, and how life is about going into the unknown and growing while learning more about the world around us, but staying also deeply connected by heart to your home with your loved ones and having a place to return to.

For those reasons my main final project is an illustrated book titled ‘Where To Go’ – with a narrative that captures through the use of imagery and text the themes and visual metaphors of life as a journey – telling the story, set in Sicily, of a cat who is seemingly content with his current life in a warm home, yet wonders about what lies beyond that as he feels something is missing within him. One day, a bird made of light beckons the cat to follow him. They travel together to different places in Sicily. Finally they reach a beach, the cat and bird watch the sunrise together and and as the bird finally bids the cat farewell, the cat goes back home to where his heart truly belongs.

I also initially integrated it with a moving wooden Automata/kinetic sculpture to enable the viewers to engage with both the sculpture and illustrations on a deeper sensorial level, but also as a way for me to explore more mediums when it comes to storytelling.