Kit Williams
Kit Williams
Christopher 'Kit' Williamsis an English artist, illustrator and author best known for his 1979 book Masquerade, a pictorial storybook which contains clues to the location of a goldenjewelled hare created by Williams and then buried "somewhere in Britain"...
ProfessionAuthor
advertising ancient contemporary
The engine of ancient society was religion but the engine of contemporary society, as I see it, is advertising.
simple west east
In practical terms the South Pointing Chariot was a simple direction finder. It could have been made to point in any direction - north, south, east or west.
afternoon wednesday practicals
Practical! On Wednesday afternoons I could be practically anything. What's up?
writing ideas bored
I took lots of photographs and had planned to write a treatise on how it worked, but I quickly got bored with that idea and wrote a scientific fairy tale instead.
thinking artist alive
I think most artists find it difficult to part with their work but it's the parting that keeps us alive and keeps us working. In the case of the chariot, although it's been sold I actually still have it, just in another form.
years people done
I started by looking at what others had done before me. You see, over the years there have been attempts by many different people to reconstruct the chariot.
hands careers faces
Having designed and built several clocks during my career it suddenly occurred to me that when you look at the face of a clock both hands have the same center.
feet way would-be
As I was working I noticed that the way I designed the differential gearing actually created a spare drive that sat directly below the emperor's feet, or where they would be if he were to sit in the chariot.
later-in-life calling distraction
He was so tenacious he defied the distraction of women by refusing to have them in his presence, just as later in life he denied his blindness by calling for more and more candles.
dog circles looks
If you look closely you can see that they are all interconnected, symbolic of a never-ending circle in which it is simply impossible for the dog to catch the rabbit.
dog rabbits painting
The dog, the rabbit and the hoop all feature in the painting, and take the place of the orrery.
dog goal unattainable
The dog and the rabbit are telling us not to chase unattainable material goals.
dog moon rabbits
It inspired all sorts of whims and fancies that I ultimately wove into a fairy tale complete with muse, the earth, the moon, some famous inventors, a dog and a rabbit.
book character keys
In the fairy tale the painting represents the here and now. The book is actually divided into five sections, through which the key character, the muse, leads us.