Kids. Gummo. Spring Breakers. Director Harmony Korine’s work needs little in the way of introductions. It is with excitement, then, that we suggest you cancel all forthcoming plans and head for the London Short Film Festival this weekend, to indulge in two days of some of his most potent works. From the aforementioned Gummo, to an adaptation of Harmony Korine’s experimental novel, A Crack Up at the Race Riots by the Belgian collective Leo Gabin, the events are shaping up to be a tad more provocative than your usual Sunday roast.
“When an artist is loved or loathed in equal measure, they must be doing something right.” Says the festival’s artistic director, Philip Ilson in a candid blog post on the event’s website. “Harmony Korine is a filmmaker who is hated by many,” he continues, “his last cinema release, Spring Breakers, definitely felt like a film with a personal hate campaign against it, which must’ve excited him immensely… though I think it’s very likely he didn’t really give a fuck what people thought.”
The above serves as a highlight of the acclaimed film festival, now in it’s 13th year, which kicked off earlier this week. With screenings taking place all over the city – from ICA to the Hackney Picturehouse, Oval Space, Ace Hotel and Round Chapel – other special events includes the tongue-in-cheek Cats&Cats&Cats which promises “the best in classic and contemporary cat cinema”. Miss at your peril.
Harmony Korine’s latest film, Spring Breakers, is a controversial take on the American rite of party passage. Opening Ceremony decided to bottle up the Kids writer’s latest work of social commentary into an equally wild ride of a collection.
Created by costume designer Heidi Bivens, the result is a neon-hued, sportswear casual range of sweatpants, mesh tops, wristbands, bandanas and of course, bikinis, topped off with slogans and artwork produced in collaboration with NY artist REAS.
Keep calm and party on in these laidback threads.
The Opening Ceremony x Spring Breakers collection is now available exclusively at the Opening Ceremony boutique in London and online
Cult painter Rita Ackermann and seminal director Harmony Korine share a love of irreverent, mischievous beauty. As such the first exhibition of their collaborative work Shadow Fux is just that: provocative, weird and stunning.
Korine’s recent film Trash Humpers – an eerie yet comedic nightmare vision – provides the point of departure. Starting with large-scale stills from the film, in which the characters wear wrinkled jelly-like masks that make them look like geriatrics, they used a call-and-response method to build up layers of blackjack collage and paint. Accompanying these ‘cut-and-paste’ works, projections of two of Korine’s films set the scene.
The result, which appears to be a succession of arbitrary scribblings reminiscent of childish colouring-in sessions, in fact speaks of the nature of collaboration and co-existence. Characters are plastered one over the other like some kind of mutant lab experiment: the cracks and joins are still visible.
Ultimately their work is a mixed media mess, a jumble, in which fragmented narratives coalesce to form jarring yet beguiling scenes. But it’s this dissonance that is most successful and resonates most deeply. Catch it quick at New York”s Swiss Institute before it is gone.
Shadow Fux is at the Swiss Institute, New York until 23rd January 2011
Nashville blue skies, blazing sun and railroad tracks – cult film maker Harmony Korine’s fashion short Act Da Fool for Proenza Schouler’s A/W 10 collection is charming. Korine follows a sweet gang of suburban girls clad in the labels paint drip patterns and leather as they idle away hot days – spraying, drinking and getting wild. These high-end little ladies roaming shopping trolley and tyre-strewn landscapes are – refreshingly – a million miles away from Proenza’s usual slick Manhattan habitat. It’s Kids gone high fashion. Korine clearly ain’t no fool.
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