kon-paper /Illustrations

kon-paper Magazin für Kultur und Literatur is an annual magazine that brings together a rich mix of poetry, essays, interviews and more written content where each issue is dedicated to a main theme. It is based between Munich and Berlin and is also printed with degradable ink on recycled paper.

Issue 7 focuses on the theme of "skin", a concept that is omnipresent this year. Inspired by the interesting texts that the kon-paper team carefully curated, I created a series of deities and other small illustrations that aimed not only to illustrate these texts but also to add another narrative layer to the theme.

Graphic Design: Julia Hell
Editor-in-Chief: Pia Lobodzinski

The Temple

With its reference to the long-forgotten temples (plus a touch of Lovecraft mixed with the Moloch machine from Metropolis), the illustration on the cover of kon-paper No.7 invites the reader to rediscover the skin and celebrate it in its diversity.

The Sage

This enlightened deity embodies the role of the skin in rituals. Resembling a wise master of ceremonies, their hands are a symbol of body language and communication.

The Shaman

This deity shows the connection between skin and nature. She knows neither shame nor taboos and is driven solely by her own knowledge and a wild, unpredictable energy.

The Drag Queen

This fierce deity represents the power of the skin as a canvas and its potential for transformation: the revealing art of drag as the supreme means of destabilizing gender boundaries like a second fluid skin.

The Technocrat(s)

An experimental deity, whose technologically modified, multi-layered skin is in constant modification. Their cloned bodies are simultaneously haunted forever by the same science that keeps them alive.

All illustrations are hand drawn on paper.

The inner pages include extra illustrations that depict more abstract visualisations of “skin”.

This one represents a pile of skin detached from the human body.
It also has eyes.

Many of these are inspired by research around artistic projects using artificial skin.

www.kon-paper.com

CARMEN REINA