Bruce Whistlecraft (A.K.A Doktor A) has
become synonymous with the creation of Victorian Futurist style Robot
characters. Indeed, his popular ongoing Mechtorians series unravels the
story of the retrobotic realm of Retropolis one artwork at a time.
Brass
moustachioed scientists rub copper-plated elbows with polished metal
bank managers, fairground hawkers and socialites in this fantastical
realm where humans play no part. A world whose inhabitants go
robotically about their daily routine, playing out their part in a
mimicked society modelled on a flimsy perception of an ideal world.
Every
aspect of our own lives are reflected and filtered through the robot’s
ill informed perception of what they are expected to be. Social
hierarchy played out as theatre and consumer trends reflected as
crippling exercises in vanity or peer pressure. When machines try and
duplicate our world the nonsense of the everyday is plain.
The Doktor’s work is an investigation of artifice
From
the physical actuality of pieces that look like complex automata, but
are incapable of movement. Through the simulation of materials from
other mediums.
To the wider psychological and sociological constructs of what constitutes a person’s character and place in society.
Even the artist’s name is artificial.
Nothing is what it seems.
Raised by the military and monitored by men in white coats until he was 16. Doktor A has always scribbled monsters. "You will never make a living drawing little men" said a teacher once. They were nearly right. He has to draw, design and build little men to make a living. These dubious skills have seen him work in theatre, Tv, advertising, magazines, toy design, merchandising and the music industry. He lives under a hill in the UK. From there he monitors the world's off-kilter-culture and produces his
dark twisted dreams. Character driven clashes of urban pop culture,
classic children's stories and neo-Victorian industrial neverlands.
