Art + Performance
"It all works, because it’s all truly Tora.”
- Richard Vine Managing Editor, ART IN AMERICA
In her 15+ years of creating performance and visual art based in New York City and Los Angeles, Tora Kim has worked with Marina Abramovic, Debbie Harry, John Zorn, Sally Silvers and Karen Finley, among others. Recently, the breadth and scope of her performance art has expanded to include the media of photography and film.
Her visual and performance art pieces are often connected by the common thread of ritual and storytelling. Using the tropes of costume, movement, mask, original text and the preciosity of personal effects, her work explores themes of trauma and dislocation that are often autobiographical in nature. Distinct from the conventional film acting approach, she utilizes a heightened state of theatrical performance to convey an audacity of feeling that connects to a core sense of pathos and outrage within a formal construct. Juxtaposing the personal with the political, the current and the primordial, her explorations strive to connect with the viewer through this personalization of archetypal symbols.
In late 2017, Tora Kim was Artist In Residence at PAM in Los Angeles. There she developed DARLING AGENDA: THAT IDOL IN A BOX which she performed in LA before taking it on the road with her to Malaysia and Thailand in January 2018. In the long-form multimedia solo piece, Tora incorporates video with live performance interacting with video, a trademark element to her performances. Other signature elements include singing, ritual and movement drawing on her classical dance training.
"Home Invasion" [performed at Automata, Los Angeles, 2017]
'Alarm Clock' [2015]
'Baby, You're Mine' [2014]