Daniel Frost: The Big Kite Show

Royal College of Art graduate Daniel Frost has got a new show at SHFT in Copenhagen that opened last week. The Big Kite Show is an exhibition of handmade kites, each featuring weird and wonderful characters capable of taking to the skies. We caught up with Daniel to find out more…

How did the show come about?

It all started with making a kite as a fun experiment for a kite festival that takes place in Copenhagen every year, I wanted to create a character on the kite that look as if it is in the state of flight, my work is very figurative and the characters are quite animated so I wanted to create a character that looks as if he/she is flying, so that when the wind catches the kite the figure flies into the air a becomes literally animated. After this first kite for the festival I made another two for and toy exhibition they were see by the guys at SHFT, Copenhagen and I met up with them, initially we I was just going to make some to sell in the store, but then we thought that it would be amazing to have an exhibition of as many different characters as I could, and then display them all over the store, some hanging on the wall some stuck to the sealing, I really like the idea of art work being hung on the ceiling. Its been such an amazing opportunity to just experiment with this one idea and to see how many directions you can push it in, It has produce some really playful and exciting results.

What have you produced for the show?

I have produced 25 kites, each kite displays a different playful character, leaving the ground by various means, some magical some propelled by springs. These will be displayed along side some original drawings of the kites. Also I have made 100 tiny kites that I will be giving away free at the show.

What made you choose kites in the first place?

I think its is because of their simplicity, not in construction but in aesthetic and the feeling of making some thing fly, its kind of magical and primitive, they are something that everyone can enjoy, children and adults. The playfulness really attracts me to kites.

What’s next?

I would really like to make a work on animation, it’s something which I tried a long time ago and would really like experiment with again, its abit like the kites in a way I would like to see my on drawings move.