Castigat Ridendo Mores - A Talk with Kiszkiloszki
“My love for mankind, my depressions, and my fears are the real fuel for my art and creativity. In a way, I’m actually grateful for their presence in my life - at least as long as I can keep my demons in check.” — Kiszkiloszki
Life of Saturn - The Birds Incident. Digital cutout animation by Kiszkiloszki (2025). Lost Kiszkies series.
Keesh-kee-losh-kee – now you know how to pronounce his name. Or rather, his alias. Kiszkiloszki is a word that means nothing, yet it embodies an entire universe: the universe of a Polish artist, an animator, musician, and misanthrope who loves humanity. His undeniable series of works on Art History Classes was partially lost physically, but some pieces were fortunately recovered by the artist from a damaged hard drive. "Save your files, fellow kids," Kiszkiloszki advises for the young at heart. And because of this event, but not only for this reason, Lost Kiszkies was created: to provide a sort of “happy ending”, in a very Kiszkiloszki way, to Art History Classes, more than a decade after its inception. Now exhibited on objkt.one Gallery, with a drop on March 20th — perhaps the last chance to collect a piece from the series, recreated from scratch using digital collage and cut-out animation techniques.
Image courtesy of the artist.
For your upcoming “Lost Kiszkies” exhibition, you’ve chosen to completely reanimate your early works from scratch. What led to this decision?
I still like ideas behind some of my early works, but I can’t stand the fact that they were animated by an absolute amateur. Back in the early 2010s, I had no clue what I was doing. The only way to appreciate them now - and share them with people - was to redo everything from scratch. I had been gradually revisiting them for years, but this year, I decided to speed up the process and bring Art History Classes to a proper conclusion. The “Lost Kiszkies” exhibition is the first step towards it.
“In the early days of my career, I didn’t care much about archiving my work. Probably because, back then, I didn’t know yet it’s a career. ”
Digital art is often vulnerable to technological obsolescence and file corruption. Even though your pieces are still circulating online today (which can be considered a form of life), how do you approach the conservation of your digital works now, especially considering that some of your pieces were lost and later recovered from a faulty hard drive?
Save your files, fellow kids. Nowadays, all my pieces and projects are stored on multiple drives and in online clouds. We should be safe, at least until the next powerful solar flare or asteroid wipes out modern technology, forcing us back to cave paintings.
In the early days of my career, I didn’t care much about archiving my work. Probably because, back then, I didn’t know yet it’s a career. Even my artistic pseudonym wasn’t something I spent much time pondering. I didn’t really care in general.
So, what does Kiszkiloszki mean?
I’m about to surprise a lot of people: it’s just a nonsensical, made-up word from my childhood. Some internet detectives have already noticed that if you slice it in half, you get “kiszki” and “loszki”, which can loosely translate to some gory stuff... but that wasn’t my intention. Or was it? As a singular word, Kiszkiloszki (pronounced keesh-kee-losh-kee) has no more meaning than simple Trolololo. It just sounds funny to me.
How did your adventure with animation as Kiszkiloszki begin?
In the early 2010s, I was writing an online blog about art and culture, illustrating my posts with first GIFs and sketches. To my surprise, they quickly gained more popularity than my actual writing - which, believe it or not, wasn’t something I was particularly happy about at first.
Eventually, I decided to create a Facebook page and a Tumblr account for my artistic endeavors. I had no idea what to call them, so I put down the mentioned earlier “kiszkiloszki” as a placeholder. I swear I meant to change it to something more meaningful later, but by the next morning, I woke up to hundreds of followers and notifications. Back then, the success-suppressing algorithms didn’t exist yet, and the word spread fast. At that point, it was too late for changes. So I just said to myself: “Ok then. Let there be Kiszkiloszki.”
Image courtesy of the artist.
Your pieces from the “Art History Classes” series are considered a way to take classic art off its pedestal by injecting humor. Is this intentional? Did you deliberately set out to play with these canons, or is it simply a consequence of your approach to using famous works of art?
Oh, it’s very intentional in most of the cases. We’ve been fed ideas of beauty, importance, and value our entire lives, and I simply find them funny (if not outright absurd). On the other hand, paintings like Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son” are among my absolute favorites, probably because it’s hard to call them beautiful in the traditional sense.
I love art history. I’ve spent a good chunk of my existence consuming and studying it and doom scrolling archives of internet libraries… but let’s be real, some of these masterpieces are just hilarious. Look at the overly dramatic figures in Guido Reni’s paintings, hands raised to the heavens. Try not to laugh.
Image courtesy of the artist.
I’d like to know if each of these famous pieces by Goya, Magritte, Van Gogh, etc., was intentionally chosen, and why. Did you first have the idea for the story you wanted to tell, or did you choose the pieces first and then develop the idea afterward?
Simply put, I just see the stories and ‘hidden meanings’ the moment I look at figurative art. The ideas just pop out spontaneously. I don't need to force them to come over. For this reason, wrapping up the “Art History Classes” series later this year won’t be easy. But after more than a decade, I think it’s time to move on and focus on other projects.
Are you already thinking about your next series of experiments? Could you share more about what they will be?
Oh yes, and I simply can’t wait to close myself up in my studio for months to create all of what’s planned. I decided it’s time to focus on the animated “Kiszkiloszki Universum” with the Death Fairy in the middle of it and many new characters around her. New animated series. Short films. Music. 3D figurines. Physical art and some surprises.
“Creating physical stuff with my own hands in my own studio became a form of therapy. It was incredibly calming. It kept me close to my creations while giving me space to breathe and heal at the same time.”
Speaking of physical art… You now offer some prints on your website. Why did you decide to materialize your digital works?
I guess not every Kiszkiloszki fan is a tech-savvy, crypto-native digital art appreciator, so it’s good to have something in stock for them too. But the real reason is: To stay sane.
As much as I love animating, working on multiple projects every day for 15 years can become a burden. Between 2023 and 2024, I went through the worst artistic burnout of my life, simply from the sheer amount of work I was putting into my practice. In the meantime, creating physical stuff with my own hands in my own studio became a form of therapy. It was incredibly calming. It kept me close to my creations while giving me space to breathe and heal at the same time. I’m back to form now. Stickers healed my mind. Hallelujah.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Are you able to dedicate 100% of your time to your work as an artist today, or do you still have to take on side jobs occasionally?
I never thought it would happen, but yes - I’ve been able to make a living from my art for a long time now. However, I will never take it for granted. Life is brutal, and then you die.
How do you see your career before and after the advent of NFTs?
Artistically nothing really changed as I have my vision and no trends in this space will ever affect it. However, being supported by so many great digital art collectors and amazing artists is a beautiful thing. Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you time. Being able to spend unlimited time on art creation is happiness. Time is the most valuable asset for me at this point as I have a lot of things to make yet.
“Well, I just don’t like people much. There are plenty of reasons - just read the news or scroll through Twitter for a few minutes.”
What is it about humanity that makes you feel so disillusioned and call yourself a misanthrope?
Ha! Ending the interview on a positive note. Well, I just don’t like people much. There are plenty of reasons - just read the news or scroll through Twitter for a few minutes. That said, my love for mankind, my depressions, and my fears are the real fuel for my art and creativity. In a way, I’m actually grateful for their presence in my life - at least as long as I can keep my demons in check. Not to romanticize mental health struggles or the whole spectrum of anger and sadness, but if you look a little closer, you’ll see all of it in my work. I just wear a disguise and a fake mustache.
Lost Kiszkies will be available for collection on March 20th at 6 PM CET on objkt.one.
Learn more about the artist also at kiszkiloszki.com