True Harmony

The trick to being innovative and convincing in your work is to force somebody to see it in solely your own terms.  Like a street performer or a magician, the manipulations of your own surroundings are intrinsic to making others believe in you. Fail that, and you deliver nothing more than a lacklustre rabbit emerging from a worn out hat. We all know that rabbit has been sitting in the hat like a stale crisp underneath the sofa cushion.

Harmony Korine honours these principals, yet he does so in a way which creatively interprets the rules of film making. He has an avid eye for uncovering the magic beneath daily monastic realism. A close friendship with David Blaine, helping to film his first broadcast of ‘Street magic’, gives us insights into Korine’s methods behind some of his very certain madness. His fortunate and exciting early attempts at writing took an important leap when he was just in his teens, catching the eye of photographer and director Larry Clarke who received an early version of Korine’s writing. Larry Clarke asked him to compose an original script similar to his previous work focussing on teenage exploits and in just three weeks Korine turned around what is now his famed début cult classic ‘Kids’. At 19 years of age, Harmony Korine was propelled forward to be one of the next true writing talents to watch out for. His honest image of teenagers in Manhattan captures the realism of individual identities which is a prominent theme in his other films. ‘Gummo’, which followed two years later in 1997, again remains dedicated to the realistic viewpoints of characters with a focus upon nonlinear narratives. ‘Gummo’s’ provactive nature right from the opening of the screenplay, with the initial cat drowning sequence, provides often shocking and fragmented random visuals, capitalising on the obscure. Korine was applauded for his artistic attention to specific images. The stillness of images can often be bizarre and completely unrelated to the next, but individually they create the depth that is needed to truly believe in events that are at the height of personal experience.

Tastes differ drastically, and as we all know what may be to our own taste, is perhaps not to others. Criticised for being overtly exploitive and self-indulgent, Korine has his fair share of mixed reception. “How can an artist be expected not to be self-indulgent?” This is the response Korine gives to not only his critics but to other film makers who compensate their art for wider recognition.

“To me, art is one man’s voice, one idea, one point-of-view, coming from one person. Self-indulgent to me means it’s one man’s obsession. That’s what great artists bring to the table. When fucking critics or whatever say, ‘he’s self-indulgent,’ I don’t know what that means.” – Harmony Korine

His often tormented protagonists become memorable, not through the strength of their story or the films plot, but to the incredibly private moments Korine allows access to in his sentimental portrayal of characters. It becomes so realistic that any sort of character assassination is near impossible, showing us that flaws and mistakes are ingrained in our human identity. Advocating his use of ‘Dogme 95’, an aesthetic dedication to film making based on the quality and inventiveness of the artist rather than the effect of an unbounded Hollywood budget, Korine has developed his recognition by focusing intensely on bizarre individuals with no prior motive of watching their stories develop, just to focus on a subculture which can so easily go a miss with a single blink.

Distress and comedy are inseparable for Korine. They are packaged together so tightly that sometimes the punch line or the result is irrelevant. It is the darkness which resides in humour, usually a cause of somebody’s demise, which remains forever intriguing. “I never cared so much about making perfect sense. I wanted to make perfect nonsense. I wanted to tell jokes, but I didn’t give a fuck about the punch line”. Fascinated as a youngster with vaudeville and the variety of entertainment which comes together to create a show, Korine saw how the dead pan expression and the seriousness of silent films could be applied to his vision of dark humour. A fan of Buster Keaton movies, Korine has applied the same stoic dedication to his work physically which demands shocking, but at the same time alarmingly comedic, results. Following ‘Gummo’, a series of un-released projects, entitled ‘Fight Harm’, were endeavoured which involved Korine antagonising random people into street fights.  He followed three main rules; always initiate by provoking, never throw the first punch, and fight until threat of death. The project, filmed by illusionist David Blaine, lasted just six fights after Korine was hospitalised and forced to abandon it. It was an attempt to display the physical destruction and downfall that must happen to result in comedy. Though this was never released, it just shows the extent he goes to in satisfying solely his own purposes.

With praise and recognition of his work came increasingly larger budgets, such as ‘Mr Lonely’ (2007) with a budget of $8.2 million dollars. Upon being accelerated towards a more demanding (often commercial) audience it would be easy to lose your head with all the appeal of larger production interest and figurehead actors but Korine has yet to make such a slip. James Franco, an actor who has moved beyond the ‘poster-boy’ stage and developed an immersive artistic involvement, has joined teams with Korine this year and they’re currently working on an installation project called ‘Rebel’. Intrigued by this news and possibility that Korine is going to deliver more gems about youth obscurity, I trawled for more information about the project. Suprise, Suprise… not much has been released regarding the content of the piece. It’s the privacy which attracts us towards Korine, his reserved and modest approach to his own work, visible in interviews, which makes the wait all the worthwhile. Late last month, at the 10th edition of Art Basel Miami, there was a special screening of a short film by Harmony Korine (starring James Franco) called ‘Caput’ in association with Mondrian Sessions and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The film, inspired by ‘Rebel Without a Cause’, is yet to be leaked (much to my frustration). Thankfully a few stills have emerged during production, instantly providing a smirk due to my immature nature at laughing when seeing naked torsos.

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Harmony Korine's 'Caput'. Photographs by Harmony Korine / Adarsha Benjamin ©

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Harmony Korine's 'Caput'. Photographs by Harmony Korine / Adarsha Benjamin ©

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Harmony Korine's 'Caput'. Photographs by Harmony Korine / Adarsha Benjamin ©

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Harmony Korine's 'Caput'. Photographs by Harmony Korine / Adarsha Benjamin ©

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Harmony Korine's 'Caput'. Photographs by Harmony Korine / Adarsha Benjamin ©

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Harmony Korine's 'Caput'. Photographs by Harmony Korine / Adarsha Benjamin ©

A surreal sequence of abandoned parking lots and gang like occupancy curiously pulls me in to see what exactly Harmony Korine will create next. He finds humour in all sorts of places and darkness under every stone, so I wonder what the machete wielding chicas will have to show us in his latest piece.

He is a born street performer, and that’s no insult. His magic and his illusions when working on projects obtain the most honest and realistic portrayal of a subject. Even his fictional film ‘Trash Humpers’ (2009) urges the belief that his antisocial OAP’s are as real as can be (enough so to even win the top prize at the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival). Who can blame the guy for providing his own enjoyment, despite frustrating unwilling participants; it’s all a part of the magic that persists to be explained. Even when you might not see the beauty of your own reality, Harmony Korine stands ready to deliver. Empty parking lots, dusty alleyways and scraped curbs are Korine’s utopian playground.

Read more about Harmony Korine’s ‘Rebel’ here