Feature by Nathan Ko
Photos by Anaïs Mitelberg
Claire Kim is a junior at Columbia College majoring in Computer Science. A Korean-American multidisciplinary artist, Claire fancies creative direction, styling and makeup, and production design. As diverse as her artistic interests are her inspirations (furniture, sculpture, and interior design), her academic interests (sociology, computer science, math), and mediums (film, music video, fashion show). I’m sure there are a couple more I’m missing.
While waiting for Claire at Blue Bottle Coffee on Broadway, I suddenly worried. “Do I remember what she looked like?” While familiar with the faces of the models she’s worked with, I was less familiar with the face of the one behind the camera, behind the styling.
This worry quickly dissipated. Coming in with black clothes—not a Hamlet, these are “the suits of woe” black but a rather sophisticated, inviting black. Claire recognized me and came over to my temporary corner in Blue Bottle. She had a hot matcha latte with such latte art on top that could excuse the Blue Bottle price tag. Her enthusiastic smile made it easy to converse with someone of her magnitude—not just an artist, but an artist in many different areas. In a sense, a jack of all trades and yet a master of all.
However, to describe herself, Claire often used the word “amateur.” She considers herself an amateur because art was a relatively new hobby that came out of a crisis during her sophomore year.
This crisis was a crisis of what to pursue. With the sophomore year CC major declaration deadline looming, she, at the time, was debating between computer science, sociology, and her other interests. But, in a way, this wasn’t a crisis but rather a metamorphosis into becoming the artist she is today.
While thinking about her interests, she realized that she needed new hobbies. “Frankly, I didn’t have any hobbies, so I decided that this year I needed to do something creative.”
With this new art bug inside her, what allowed her to create art for the first time since seventh grade was a Literature Humanities assignment. “I was inspired by Dante, and I wanted to use fashion and makeup to convey symbolism that I was interested in.”
While the project looks polished, Claire opened up about the messy process of creating art for the first time in a while. Claire had to find an empty classroom instead of a proper studio, stood on a table to get a blank wall, and didn’t edit the final results (all files were raw). It was a frenzied state of experimentation that, fortunately, ended up well. “The makeup, hair, costume - all of that - was just me. Just me in the classroom, putting shit up on my face, going to the bathroom, being stuck for seven hours.”
One of the most eye-catching visuals in this project is the one on violence. In this visual, Claire attempts to show the soul abandoning the body, which she captures through low shutter speed. In addition, what she seems to be holding is a key, a direct allusion to Pier della Vigna in Canto 12 who held the keys to his king’s heart but later committed suicide.
While the creative process for her first art project may have been chaotic, that has changed over her artistic career. As her MBTI is an INFJ (emphasis on the J), she takes pride in “meticulously planning everything because of the type J. I like to plan everything out.”
Her next project gumiho (구미호), which she was the creative director and stylist for, reflects her need-to-plan inclination. Her mood board has all the specifics of her vision laid out, as well as a Pinterest board that furthers those specifics. Her mood board was full of surrealist art, and one stand-out piece from it would be the fur cup.
“I came across Méret Oppenheim’s fur cup at MoMA, and I learned more about the sculptor. She uses a lot of fur as a nod to sexuality and, recognizing that, combines fur with everyday objects to create a sense of discomfort. I was really inspired by that, so I took the idea of fur and was reminded of the gumiho myth and its themes of gender, sexuality, classism, the grotesque as well as the aesthetic.”
Splitting up the themes of gumiho into the day and night, Claire played with time and duality. While directing her model, she told the model to look like a “submissive domestic housewife” for the visual for the first look (day), and, for the second look (night), the model acted more freely with the gumiho’s true identity being revealed.
A completely different type of project that Claire took on recently was a fashion show. It was by far her biggest project yet. “I was working with fourteen models, five designers, two makeup artists, two styling assistants, and one personal assistant. It was a huge team, and everything was happening at the same time. Styling and makeup were happening at the same time, in the same room. It was a lengthy process.”
This project started with Claire cold emailing a bunch of Korean brands, as well as some FIT and Parson students. She also held model casting auditions. She also recalled the physical labor of putting together the show, such as picking up garments and meeting people downtown.
For this gargantuan project to come together smoothly, Claire had to plan everything meticulously. She showed me her in-depth Pinterest boards that had more in-depth Pinterest boards within them as well as a spreadsheet of the models’ info that looked more like an investment banker’s Excel sheet.
A lot of the clothes, makeup, and styling featured alluded to Korean culture, probably most prominent in the clothing being reminiscent of Korean traditional clothing hanbok.
Working with a lot of people for a project is not something Claire is new to. For the film Or, A Frail Correspondence, which she served as the production designer, stylist, hair & makeup artist for, she mentioned how this film had the largest crew she’s worked with. The film uses the loss of virginity to depict themes of absence, loss, and death. “The director wanted to create a sense of limbo, a place in between spaces.
While she wasn’t the director for this project, she was definitely able to have a large role in the creative process. “I didn’t have as much creative say over this project, but I enjoyed interpreting the director’s version, interpreting it, translating it into my ideas, and making it come into reality. One object she got to design was the chair. “I designed this chair, which I found a little funny. There’s an idea of bondage, as well as the use of strings that plays with the idea of hanging in between—again, the theme of limbo.”
Similar to My 9 Circles of Hell, there were chaotic elements of working on site the whole day. She mentioned pouring plaster and dust on an actor as well as yogurt into an actor’s mouth. The plaster was a bit of a problem though, as it elicited an allergic reaction from the actor.
It was also the first time Claire worked with a naked actor, and as she was in charge of styling and makeup, interacting with a naked actor felt different. But, due to the feeling of being on set, she’s able to set aside her personal opinions and be committed to the professional role.
She also mentioned this addicting feeling of being on set. “It’s like doing a Hackathon, and there’s a deadline. I also have ADHD and work well under time constraints. It’s kind of a challenge that I enjoy. Also, the enjoyment of focus and creating collaboratively is addicting.”
Another medium Claire often frequents is music videos. For music videos, Claire works off of the music. “The music grounds the creative process. I feel like someone’s giving me ideas, and so it’s more of a service to the musician.”
As one can tell by now, Claire has many interests and experiences. But as wide as those are her inspirations as well. Her inspirations aren’t limited to surrealist sculpture. She’s been interested in space-age furniture and interior design. “The shapes of that art inspires my creative ideas.”
One interior design she pointed out as her inspiration was the Headquarters of the French Communist Party. “They may seem like different disciplines, but they seem similar to clothing: silhouettes, textiles, material of construction. With space-age furniture, I’m mostly inspired by the silhouettes.”
In the future, Claire plans to pursue more photography and film. “I get to have the gaze rather than be the object of the gaze. It gives me a sense of power. Sometimes I see photos taken of my work, and I’m not 100% envision it. If I get to caption my work, it’ll align with how I envision it.”
To find more of Claire’s art, you can find her website and her Instagram.