Perfume

Joshua Kim

My work is a display of a music video showcasing a romantic song by Del Water Gap. The song is called Perfume, lyrics singing about “picturing you right now with nothing on”. I wanted to put a spin on these lyrics of this character picturing themselves with nothing on, with being vulnerable of their own thoughts. Having this idea of being completely vulnerable within society, with themselves and showing who they truly are without rejection or judgment. This character is a self reflection of my own personal experiences of suicide and mental health issues. I wanted to showcase the trauma of being lost in reality, and the confusion of one's own mind. Leaving enough space for the viewer as well with the nonlinear narrative direction of an ambient music video. Questioning our own vulnerability and own ideologies of the world around ourselves. I want to push the boundaries of social norms expressively each and everyday just like how this song was able to push me to be vulnerable to the world around me.

About the Artist

I am an independent ambient film maker. My medium is film, a fluid expressive nonlinear approach. Creating storytelling through a more intimate way with movement and aesthetic. I create to showcase the questioning of ideologies, social norms and realities. Pushing those boundaries creating a blurred line of both the beautiful and the damned. I believe this reality isn’t real and there are things that we as humans just accept without questioning that create us into obsolete. 

My main form of inspiration comes from dreams. Both dreams and nightmares, that blurred line between the differences and similarities of them. Dreams having a nonlinear approach and both being able to touch into realities that seem so real, that could be and are real. Dreams often make time disappear, the fabrics of this preconceived notion of this world lost. Lost in a reality of emotions. Being completely static to the world around us, having seconds feel like hours and having hours feel like lifetimes. This ability to get lost into something, and seek into further possibilities. Dreams often become our reality, that feeling of emotions of pure euphoria. This creates the feeding, starving, ravenous tenderness of wanting more. Being absorbed in the oversaturation of realities, never wanting to be awakened to the real world. This is the blur line of nightmares being hallucinations of our own dreams. Often fading in and out of both at the same time. Not knowing where to balance the feelings of being lost in emotions, to the reality around us.

I create to truly get lost. To feel like a figure in the field. A flower absorbed into the flowers around them. To escape this society with such little hope, such little dreams. To get lost in emotions rather than logic. Escape into dreams rather than the domain of humanity that programs us to be ordinary. This realm of dreams feels like a fragrant perfume, leaving traces of memories that evoke the past with each passing moment. Emotions are not linear neither is time, so I rather get lost within this paradox. A constant maze of paradoxes, creating emotions that often blur the boundaries between reality and dreams, until I am completely lost in a dream of my own creation. I might be a lost angel to my own reality but I would rather be a lost angel than be bonded to the hellish chains of the constraints of social norms and expectations. I’ll take that leap of faith into the unknown, trusting the unseen and embracing the uncertainty of my own dreams.

Additional Documentation