Harmony Korine

Book excerpt: The first comprehensive monograph on the cinema, art, and creative world of Harmony Korine, the boundary-breaking auteur of Mister Lonely, Kids, Gummo, and Spring Breakers. Harmony Korine’s talent as a writer and filmmaker has earned the approval of a wide range of audiences. His first major monograph gathers together many of his most significant projects, spanning film, writing, and art. Korine rose to prominence after penning Larry Clark’s infamous Kids (1995) at the age of nineteen. In the years since, he has created critically acclaimed cult classics, including Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, Mister Lonely, Trash Humpers, and Spring Breakers, as well as the lauded street-art documentary Beautiful Losers. Korine’s creative practice extends to photography, drawing, and figurative and abstract painting. This book is the first to reflect on Korine’s career to date, and will mark his massive influence on indie culture over the past twenty years. This project aims to explore the importance of process and experimentation as well as the artist’s wide variety of creative tools such as collage and editing that help shape his ever-changing practice. An interview by film critic Emmanuel Burdeau and an essay by curator Alicia Knock trace common themes through his films and art works, exploring Korine’s interests in the surreal quality of contemporary life.