This painting was a project I embarked on five years ago and finally arrived at its end earlier this pandemic year of 2021. Starting with the idea of creating the visual equivalent of a memoir, I attempted to tell the story of the years I spent living in the Mission District of San Francisco, where I started work on my first novel. The painting begins in August of 2001, just one month before 9/11. My eight years in the city since is recounted through images and objects I grew up with and held on to as I struggled through the process of writing a full-length novel. It was at this time that I was watching a lot of 1970s exploitation films and became inspired by their energy and irreverence. I attempted to simulate that same cinematic experience, but with a more meditative and intimate quality, while also remaining bawdy. As a viewing experience, the painting attempts to be encompassing in the way the theater going experience encompasses the viewer, except rather than passively sitting and watching the action unfold, one walks along and follows the progression of images, actions, and events. The painting is 48ft long and 5ft high.
This painting was started two years after my father’s death and in the process of working on “The charms and sorrows of a process”, my mother passed away followed a few months later by my fiance’. The dates of these losses are stamped in specific sections of the painting to mark each death in the five year timeline it took to finish it.
To view details and the progress of the painting, please view the ‘Archive’ and click on the dates that bookend this painting.
SEAN KIM 