Step Into Harmony Korine’s Infrared Dystopia
Complementing his new film, ‘Aggro Dr1ft’, the creative polymath is showcasing a new series of paintings at Hauser & Wirth LA.
Artist, director and all-around creative polymath, Harmony Korine, is showcasing a series of new paintings at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles to complement his new experimental action film, Aggro Dr1ft.
Shot entirely in infrared and complemented by a pulsating score by Araabmuzik, Korine’s latest film, if you want to call it that, follows the life of an assassin (played by Jordi Moller) and his manic nemesis, Zion, who is played by rapper Travis Scott. Admittedly, Korine told German art historian, Isabelle Graw, that he doesn’t see Aggro Dr1ft as a film at all, but rather the concept of what comes “after films…a kind of post-cinema or post-picture.”
Heavily inspired by video games, both the film and paintings are meant to spark a feeling of contemplation within the viewer, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. “It’s like a dystopian vision where color becomes like a character in the film. It’s almost science fiction, where the world just consists of colors and energy,” Korine added.
There is a constant duality within Aggro Dr1ft: the characters are violent, yet presented full of life; the world is chromatically beautiful, but set in a dystopian future. Bypassing narrative or “any one specific thing,” noted Korine, Aggro Dr1ft is “more about chasing a feeling or an experience, creating something like aesthetic drugs.”
The exhibition recently opened at Hauser’s DTLA location and will be on view until January 14. Meanwhile, Aggro Dr1ft is now showing at select theaters.
For more on art, we spoke with Tavares Strachan to understand the constellation of thoughts that seep back into his work.
Hauser & Wirth
901 E 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90013
