Your eye goes straight to the right headlamp, because it is the only thing in the picture that has lost control.
The cab is a black cab, drawn in clean hard greys on a flat grey ground, rain and all. Left headlamp: a calm grey disc. Right headlamp: orange, magenta, cyan and yellow tearing out of it in poured paint, with drips running down and a haze of overspray around the edge.
The bit you notice on the second look
The burst is going away from the cab. It does not curl around the car or make a nice halo behind it. It leaves. That is Kai’s one rule, in every piece he makes – build the grey world exactly, then let one thing go, and let it go outward.
Then look down. The colour lands again in a pool on the wet ground, so your eye gets two places to rest instead of one. Hard vector edges against loose liquid paint, and neither side wins. As one critic put it: “The vibrant eruption from the headlamp captures the energy of London cutting through grey rain.”
What happens once it is up
Grey rooms love it. Put it in a hallway, an office, above a desk, and the room gets a bit of voltage without a slogan on the wall. People ask about the second headlamp. Every time.
Getting it on your wall
It is a high quality print on matte poly-cotton canvas with a visible weave, stretched over solid wood an inch and a quarter deep. Matte means a window opposite gives you the orange back, not your own ceiling light. The image wraps the sides, so there is nothing white peeking round the edge, and it arrives ready to hang – one nail, done, no framer and no surprise bill.
Portrait. Most people take the 16×20 (40 x 51 cm) at $149, which holds a wall above a desk comfortably; 12×16 is $129 for a narrow stretch of wall, 18×24 is $229 if you want it to run the room. Made to order in up to ten business days, free shipping in the continental US – and nobody else on your street will have it.
One honest thing
This is loud in one spot and completely calm everywhere else. If you want something soft and even all over, it will annoy you.
If it is already on the wall in your head, take it home. Not sure yet? Have a look at the rest of Kai’s grey-and-burst pieces, or follow him and you will see the next one before anyone else does.
