Harmony Korine’s AGGRESSIVE DR1FTER Part II at Hauser & Wirth London

Harmony Korine, the avant-garde American artist and filmmaker, returns to Hauser & Wirth with “AGGRESSIVE DR1FTER Part II,” a follow-up to his 2023 Los Angeles exhibition. Known for his multidisciplinary approach and relentless experimentation, Korine continues to blur the lines between mediums, transforming his infrared-shot film “AGGRO DR1FT” into a series of acid-hued oil paintings. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival in 2023, the film’s innovative use of infrared technology now informs the vivid, hallucinatory canvases on display in London.

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“AGGRESSIVE DR1FTER Part II” showcases Korine’s unique ability to meld film and painting into a singular artistic expression. As described by German art historian Isabelle Graw, Korine’s work expands and de-specifies each medium, allowing a film to become a painting and vice versa. This concept is vividly realized in pieces like “STILTS ZOON X2” (2023), where the artist captures the essence of his infrared imagery in oil, creating paintings that seem to pulse with life and energy.

Korine’s exploration of infrared technology in his film provides a rich foundation for his paintings. The infrared camera captures a world of colors and energy, translating thermal variations into detailed, vibrant images. In works like “Drift XI” (2023), close-ups of heads are rendered with a sensitivity to heat, creating an immersive, almost tactile experience. Korine explains, “The closer you get, the more heat is pulled from the image and the more alive it looks,” transforming the viewer’s perception into something akin to being inside a video game.

Korine’s paintings leverage the aesthetic potential of infrared technology to create unearthly, impressionistic images. The camera’s ability to detect and amplify heat results in softened lines and de-emphasized features in wide shots, giving the works a surreal, otherworldly quality. “The colors and the grain structure start to explode the whole idea of lines. They become more about depicting the vibration of the energy,” Korine notes, pushing the boundaries of both paint and film.

The artist’s meticulous mixing of paints enhances the luminosity and intensity of the pigments, creating an eccentric color palette that ranges from vibrant blues and greens to striking pinks and oranges. Influences from Martin Kippenberger‘s playful paintings and William Eggleston‘s vibrant photographs are evident in Korine’s work. Pieces like “REVELATOR MAXIMUS” (2023) feature walking figures set against monochromatic backgrounds, where variations in shade—from teal to cobalt—form a vivid yet dystopian environment. Korine’s juxtaposition of lively colors with grim subject matter creates a compelling narrative tension, offering viewers a direct encounter with his fantastical world.

Harmony Korine is celebrated as one of the most influential and innovative filmmakers of his generation. His work, driven by memory, emotion, and physical sensation rather than strategy or rational thought, seeks to capture the inexplicable and the visceral. Korine’s art is a pursuit of feeling, a connection to colors, dirt, and character, much like a looping, trancelike experience.

Korine’s paintings, born from his filmic visions, are an extension of his narrative storytelling. The “AGGRESSIVE DR1FTER Part II” exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London invites viewers to step into his immersive, otherworldly creations, where the boundaries between film and painting dissolve, and where color and energy become the primary protagonists.

“AGGRESSIVE DR1FTER Part II” is a testament to Harmony Korine’s innovative spirit and his ability to transcend traditional artistic boundaries. By transforming his infrared film into vibrant, hallucinatory paintings, Korine offers a new way to experience art, one that is as much about feeling and sensation as it is about visual impact. This exhibition not only showcases Korine’s mastery of multiple mediums but also his unending quest to push the limits of artistic expression.

Visitors to Hauser & Wirth London can expect an unforgettable journey through Korine’s vivid imagination, where each painting pulses with life, energy, and the unmistakable mark of an artist who continues to redefine what it means to create.

The exhibition is on view at Hauser & Wirth London from 9 May – 27 July 2024.