Headlong and Tenacious

The animated works of IM Chaerin begin, naturally, with the film The Genesis. Following the seven days of creation recorded in the Bible, in the beginning there is light; then the sky, earth, plants, the sun and moon, creatures living in different places, and finally humans are born. However, it is different in that the creator of the world is a mother. Next, the film Flora presents male and female genitalia that resemble extravagant floral shapes with the textures of paper, metal, and glass. In the following film Mate, the two sexes join together into a single amorphous shape—pulling, pushing, and whirling in place. The delicate images that look like fine pencil drawings are, in fact, works of intaglio printmaking, made by transferring pencil drawings onto metal plates one image at a time. The director’s latest film, Eyes and Horns, uses laser cuttings and sunlight to conjure the minotaur from Picasso’s autobiographical series of etchings. The film attempts to overturn the artistic genius, who created a heightened masculinity through a mythical figure, and the world that supported him. Since her childhood, IM Chaerin lived between Korea and the United States. She experienced gender and racial discrimination and questioned her own national and cultural identity. Whenever she felt dissatisfaction, she would begin to make art.