What would your reality look like if it were a book? For me, it manifests as Dark Kastle—a surreal, ever-shifting labyrinth reflecting our distorted, hyperreal state. Inspired by Jean Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality, my work explores the collapse of boundaries between truth and simulation, reality and myth. This isn’t just a societal transformation—it’s a psychological one, reshaping how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.
Dark Kastle is my response to this condition: a hand-drawn comix and art magazine that engages with the absurdity, confusion, and fragmentation of contemporary life. The castle itself is a metaphor for our hybrid digital-physical reality—absurd, creepy, and constantly shifting—where certainty is elusive and moral clarity is muddled. It’s not about escape, but about confrontation. I describe the work as anti-escapist fantasy: using fantasy to reflect, rather than escape, the world we live in.
Created through traditional dip-pen illustration, the magazine emphasizes physicality and imperfection. Each line and hatch is intentional, creating layered gray areas between stark blacks and whites—visual metaphors for the ambiguity of truth, morality, and meaning. This analog process is both aesthetic and political: a way of resisting the alienation and automation of digital tools, and reclaiming artistic instinct in an era dominated by algorithmic perfection.
The magazine contains short comics, longer narratives, and stand-alone illustrations, all bound together by the shared setting of The Dark Kastle. The publication offers an alternative to the algorithm-driven mindless consumption of digital content, reconnecting audiences with artisan media and engaging with narrative art physically.
Ultimately, Dark Kastle is not an answer but a reflection—a visual exploration of what it feels like to navigate a world where reality itself is uncertain. It’s a personal and generational statement, created by hand, open to interpretation, striving for authenticity.
