Hi friends meet @laurenkirm, one of the most amazing humans on planet earth. Lauren is an artist who is incredible funny, creative and unique. Follow along this week as we talk about pushing kids out of the way to win things and art.
What is paradise?
I see paradise as a state of mind. Paradise is losing self consciousness, and giving yourself over to the feeling of being alive. It's the sensation of falling in love, and feeling safe in your vulnerability. It's losing sense of time. It's freedom.
What would you like for your next birthday?
an egregious pile of ranunculus, a room full of balloons, to knock over every single thing in an aisle of a grocery store, to break an expensive sculpture, ride a ferris wheel above the ocean, be the reason why eileen myles breaks her abstinence, sit on a court case with john waters, dance to bad music, and cookies from yuko's kitchen.
What is good?
michael, is this a test on my ethics? because i can tell you that i have questionable morals and i am not above pushing a child out of the way to win something.
Do people ever change?
I'd like to think so. What's the point of living, if other people can't surprise you?
Why is art important?
I don't know if it is, but it's important to me. I need to make art, because it's one of the only things that make me feel like a human being. I need it because sometimes words aren't enough to express how complicated emotions can be. I need it because it's fun, and it's futile---but the biggest truth of the matter is that I just fucking love it.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
There used to be a bad dim sum restaurant in Chinatown that looked like an 80's coke den (excessive amount of black lacquer, walls made up of mirrors), which I loved to frequent because on certain nights, hoards of mariachi bands would fill the restaurant after their late night gigs. I loved the feeling of eating shitty dim sum with off duty mariachi musicians. Anyways, once I got a fortune cookie there that said, "HAPPINESS IS NOT A REWARD, IT'S A CONSEQUENCE".
What does the perfect day look like?
No barking from the dogs, no smog
And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog
I got my grub on, but didn't pig out
Finally got a call from a girl I wanna dig out
Hooked it up on later as I hit the door
Thinking will I live another twenty four?
What are your thoughts on the ocean?
I'm going to quote the poet Etel Adnan here, as I share her sentiments on the ocean:
"The sea is immense, to say the least. As an entity, a constituent of the physical world, it is infinite, because it is “there” (from every angle), and always there. That sea hypnotizes me. Needless to say. And the sea is an element of our inner life, a tool by which we exist, and we think. It’s sometimes an image, sometimes an energy, sometimes an inner direction back to energy, to an immaterial line that crosses the mind (the brain?). There’s also something very simple to our addiction to the sea: its beauty."
Mantra of the moment?
Favorite quote?
Remain mysterious
Rather than be pure, accept yourself as numerous
What life skills are rarely taught but extremely useful?
Elasticity, curiosity, self reflection, expressing dissent graciously, humor, accepting and being undeterred by rejection, reading personalities, balancing resilience/self preservation, lighting a pilot light.
What’s your good luck charm?
I don't have one, but I have a talisman that I've been instructed to keep on me at all times. It's a prayer from a Korean shaman, given to me by my grandmother. It's supposed to protect me from evil. Also, I keep a rabbits foot stuffed in my butthole during art openings. I'm very talented.
What was the biggest realization you had about yourself?
I'm a sensitive cockroach, and I'm an artist. I couldn't call myself an artist, for a long time. I had to go through a period of utter lack of self worth, fear, and stagnancy in order to understand that. Which is why now I make my friends address me as EMPRESS COCKROACH ARTIST. They really like it.
Please tell me one Lauren fun fact...
I don't believe in "fun", just like I don't believe in "vitamins" or "exercise".
What is something difficult that you a currently working through?
Depression. Balancing the ego needed to show art vs the lack of ego needed to make art.
Tell me about your work?
I went to a conceptual art school where language and theory was prioritized above materiality, so now I try to avoid talking about my own work. However, I will share that my last body of work was about: internal struggle, infinite longing, projections / the illusion of love vs. real love(?), walking the tightrope of stability, Los Angeles, sex, contradictions, dancing, and the never ending search for the self.
My next body of work will share some overarching themes, but will look very different than the work I've made before. My practice is in the process of finding itself, and it hasn't settled. Because of that, each new body of work ends up being more and more experimental than the last. It's such an exciting place to be in.
You can see a selection of my work at WWW.LAUREN-KIM.COM or instagram.com/laurenkirm
Why do you like watching scary movies?
I hate scary movies, but I love the act of watching scary movies with other people. It stems from my mother. She loved to watch scary movies together. So much so that when I was in third grade, she made me throw a birthday party and surprised us with a viewing of Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS (courtesy of Blockbuster). I have a visceral memory of all of my child colleagues shrieking with terror at the scene where a man is found eyeball-less after a bird attack. My mother didn't think about how scary it would be, she just thought that she was showing us a good movie. The unintended inappropriateness of my mother showing a bunch of 9 year olds THE BIRDS makes me laugh so hard.
What does stuck look and feel like?
Stuck looks like Winnie the Pooh stuck in a hole and feels like Winnie the Pooh stuck in a hole. You're immobile, helpless, pantsless, and on top of that your asshole friend Rabbit tries to disguise your ass so that you look like some strange, demonic smiling antlered BUTT SHELF. UNACCEPTABLE!