Purple by Paris Kain

Multimedia artist Paris Kain’s “Purple” plays on the dichotomy of grotesque beauty. Inspired by both Japan’s Ankoku-Butoh performance movement as well as the Wabi-sabi view of aesthetic, he transforms his muse artist Taiana Giefer into a proxy for these two profound creative philosophies. Ankoku-Butoh performance movement rose to influence in Japan after WW2 as a creative method to deal with the devastation and aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno were the founders of this movement. Wabi-sabi is the distinct Japanese creative wisdom behind aesthetics. It fundamentally represents the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Asymmetry, irregularity, and simplicity play a role in this philosophy, with its genesis being Buddhism’s three marks of existence – impermanence, suffering, and absence of self nature. Eye witness accounts of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki mention seeing a pillar of purple fire creating a purple sky with purple clouds. The purple flower in the film is an iconic reminder of the fragility of humanity, as well as the beauty of its impermanence.

Film and music by: Paris Kain

Starring: Taiana Giefer

Producer: Ruy Sanchez Blanco

Editor: Nuno Xico

Stylist: Sarah Ellison

Hair: Rita Marmor

Make-up: Sil Bruinsma

Manicurist: Maki Sakamoto

Clothing by: Rick Owens

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