Kai’s art career started when she was 4. Or so she was told. She took part in art contests and collected trophies. So far, so happy, so cute. One day, aged 14, she stopped being a child, and became  miserable (and pretentious), yet idealistic. Although a half-formed being she had an epiphany. She decided (via philosophical books that she devoured) that reality was an illusion, that ‘this’ wasn’t/couldn’t be ‘it’, and that there had to be something else. She became affected by the political / environmental / global / universal issues of the day. Perhaps paradoxically, she began to create her own worlds/illusions, via art. She translated her teenage angst and general gloomydoomedcocoon into colourful drawings, paintings (oil, pastel,watercolour), cartoons, sculptures and installations, which often had a science-fictional or fantasy theme, or feature some form of a mapping of the world or another. Her works were about running away from the/my claustrophobic reality; and indeed art was her one escape, where she could let her imagination run riot. She worked furiously. The following are a few of the less embarrassing examples.