A Kross … Francis Sling

Tania Kross and Francis Sling are both from Curaçao and went to the same primary school. In this episode of A Kross … Francis takes her inside his head, and into the book that is growing out of it: For Example. The book began as half-thoughts he jotted down; some of them turned into chapters by themselves, such as Place Before Words, about the place where you already know something before you have the words for it. The title says what it is about: we live in examples. We follow them, we try to be one, and we make metaphors and poems about them, but the example is never the thing itself. Francis is making the book as a work of art: black and white, with only the tape in blue, and with the scratches and the things that didn’t work out still in it. It comes in a box, with a deck of cards to bring your questions to and an eraser that is also a fridge magnet: a reminder to draw without chasing perfection. They talk about doubt and about AI, which first made him angry and then made him ask what he is, then. His answer: what makes you you, empathy, and being human. “There is nothing wrong with being wrong and not everything is right about being right.” At his mural For the Love of God he tells the story of two gods who meet, and of a man and a woman who dance together without melting into one. His message: we are all makers. Tania ends by calling him “an artist, a questioner and above all a beautiful person”.