Marianne M. Kim

Marianne M. Kim (b.1970 Seoul) is a Korean American interdisciplinary artist working in screendance, multimedia installation, choreography, and performance art. Her areas of research include the disorienting effects of technologized labor, cultural identity, consumerism, and most recently the forces within industrial food production and promotion that mediate race, gender, and bodies.

This interview was conducted via email between Davis, California and Phoenix, Arizona in November 29, 2018 to November 30th, 2018.

KA: Here is my first question, what motivated you to become a Video Artist and Performer?

KM: I always loved cinema though I decided to study dance instead of film when I attended Northwestern University for undergraduate studies. After 7 years of working in stage performance (1993-2000) as a performer and choreographer in Chicago I moved to Los Angeles to UCLA for graduate school to study screendance and new media. Digital technology in the form of affordable software (Final Cut Pro) and pro-consumer camera equipment was becoming readily available in the early 2000s. It was becoming very trendy to incorporate video imagery to live stage work. I was interested in this trend as well as single channel video art.

KA: So, you got your film education in UCLA?

KM: Yes, UCLA

KA: Very interesting, How did you start your career in film and art?

KM: I'm a first generation Korean American immigrant. I was born in Seoul and came to the U.S. when I was three years old. I was raised to be a model minority. My father wanted me to go into a legitimate profession like political science. When my father passed away I was allowed to choose my own future. I chose art. I became a KGB "Korean Gone Bad."

KA: Who is the most important person in your career in filmmaking especially?

KM: I can't name one person. I can only name highly influential filmmakers/video artists: Wong Kar Wei, Akira Kurosawa, Jim Jarmusch, Sally Potter, Andrei Tarkovsky, Terrence Mann, Jane Campion, Bruce Nauman, Pipolotti Rist, Mika Rottenburg. To name a few.

KA: I noticed some beautiful pieces of music in your Video Art and Screendance, How did you choose the music?

KM: Most of my work doesn't include text so the music and sound guides the emotional baseline.

KA: And, where or how did you find those songs?

KM: I work with composers who give me "friends discount." I am deeply beholden to them because music and sound design makes or break a video piece.

KA: I Watched some of your work through your google site, for example “Would_You_Mind”, what inspired you to combine the music with the performance?

KM: I love musicians. I love watching musicians, especially when they are deeply involved in playing music. As a choreographer I am interested in their physical process and transformation as music moves them.

KA: Fasteners (2004) is also a beautiful masterpiece, the music and the framing of the video is amazing. What is the story behind the artwork?

KM: The piece was inspired by Elias Cannetti's book The Agony of Flies. I wanted to create a collection of small surreal situations connected by the presence of the two women.

KA: what is the main message you want the audience to remember from the piece?

KM: I think I want audiences to experience the piece like how they remember a dream: illogical (yet logical while in the dream), visceral, haunting (like an earworm -a song that gets stuck in your head), and humorous without knowing why...without caring why.

KA: Do you consider Fasteners (2004) as a feminist and also an experimental film? If yes, what is the message you want to deliver with this video art?

KM: Yes, this is a feminist and experimental film. The love of two women is in the foreground of the video piece. The body of each woman is viewed whole. The women are complex and mysterious and their nudity is used to articulate the story and not for titillation.

KA: You include nudity in a lot of your artworks, how did you see nudity from a feminist point of view?