In the week leading up to October 31st, every day we will be sharing the bone-chilling work of one of our favourite freaky artists, alongside a hair-raisingly festive little interview! Stay-tuned!
Kim Westfall is a painter who was born in Seoul but now lives in New York City like the rest of the artists who can afford it. Many of her works depict mocking, semi-formed smiling faces or incorporate some other kind of hostile, leering figure. She also paints abstractly on unconventional and irregularly-shaped, hand-cut paper canvases and we all know NOTHING terrifies and disturbs more than a deviation from what is NORMAL! Kim creates interesting work in a few different mediums but mainly we like the creepy little rugs she’s been making lately. Who knew a little rug could make you feel so uneasy? – O.W.
What was your most memorable halloween experience/costume?
The haunted house run by my neighbors where I grew up. They gave out sandwich bags filled with mini bibles and stale bulk candy with porny names; rods hard candy, jolly ranchers, jaw busters. Sermons blasted all night, and the lawn lit up with billboards quoting scripture, all warning that the true horror was worldly vice and eternal damnation. If a fundamentalist Christian puts on a Satan costume to prove their point, you know they mean business. But you also know they live for that shit. Scariest house on the block.
What is your favourite horror movie and why?
Possession. It’s like if a romantic comedy threw up a horror film.
What possesses you to create?
I’m just trying to express myself.
Is your work intended to induce fear?
I think so.
What are you most afraid of?
Bad press releases.
Do you believe in ghosts?
I don’t fuck with ghosts.
Given the choice, would you become immortal?
I think it would be hard to keep living life if it never ended. The other day, I watched Paris Hilton wish for immortality on KBS, and I don’t want to be in her eternal company, no thanks.
If you were a monster what kind of monster would you be?
Ghost in residence at Richard Prince’s studio. Seems like a good place to haunt.
Halloween Special: Kim Westfall