#jonathan kim

The Christmas Chronicles

Annabel Kim and Jonathan Kim performing their free program at the 2016 Novice US Nationals.

Annabel Kim and Jonathan Kim's short program costumes at the 2016 US Championships (Novice).

Read more at The Adelaide Review

— by Jane Llewellyn: Kim made the switch from business to art just five years ago and he hasn’t looked back since.

Kim is currently undertaking the Helpmann Academy’s British School at Rome Residency, which he was awarded earlier this year at the Helpmann graduate exhibition along with the Linden New Art Award. Born in South Korea, Kim began his university studies…

jonathan kim

Fall:

Alternatively, to begin with: Pseudo-intelligentsia universitarium: In which my TV upbringing1  confronts an academic world too vast not to be skimmed

In Baltimore, It is all too easy to become the underground man2 As I mole-tunnel into my dormitory single: Layers of Nolan’s take-out boxes jenga-stacked on my desk, The recycled cups teetering on my windowsill pummel-stuffed with used Tissues (xx) for my piss-poor aim and the overbrimming state Of the trash-can five feet away from my bed, The foot of which is heaped with still-decent-enough pants, A knotted cotton-jacket rope, and a sack chock-full of Socks and unfolded underwear, and on which I spend hours on the internet (laptop on nominal position, Pillow squeezed between bent spine and pale plaster), Which does nothing to ease my social disconnection:3 The glamour of Facebook’s college life hee-hawing at my own And the addiction to hook-and-glide trivialities on reddit being a totally numbing experience Repeated ad nauseum

(This is to say nothing of the league and hearthstone subreddits On which I empty my emaciated mind despite the fact I’ve deleted the games from my computer for productivity’s sake;4 Nor do I broach the subject of our library, in which the underground man Becomes too literal)

And in this city I dream Of becoming an ascetic prophet Of soylent meals, Franciscan poverty,5 And humble residency in A room of the same closeted size till post-grad and beyond (Of course, in ideal, having tossed out the bundles of shit I lug into storage come each break, For the creation of a pure, minimanialistic style)

A vision that is fueled By 1. a pallid hatred of my fellow ____’s ignorance Of the socio-politico-historico-rational, How the superstructure of capital prevents satisfied living And the competitive spirit threatens Revelations6 (And look how the one limping somewhat-radical group I have found On campus turns out all-too-knowingly to be led by He who prefers methods of charisma over democracy) 2. a recognition that I must yet compete And deny leisure for those who haven’t the indulgence,7 And 3. THC

Spring:

But let the sun shine! Cuenca, España—and the light Spools around the tables And chairs like strands of the emperor’s white honey A band of fellow wayfarers shares Each small wit gleamed from translated tongue Like the bread of the Apostles—mirth(!)

The woman of garbanzo stews and Glass lamps and the man with five dogs Who’s carved a house out of a cave: They spend their hours like they would peel an apple, spiraling strip dangling to the floor

Coffee in the morning is a rich Brew of sauna heat that slides into the soul Instead of rattling the corpse. Tomatoes too, laced with olive oil: I like them somehow

1. David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction,” Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993.

2. Walter Arnold Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, (New York: Meridian, 1956), the only part I read for my failed hs senior year project.

3. Emile Durkheim, Readings from Emile Durkheim, (New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2004).

4. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, (Australia: Allen and Unwin, 1930).

5. John Francis, “Walk the Earth…My 17-Year Vow of Silence,” TED Talks, Feb. 2008, p 57-63.

6. Joel Kovel, The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?, (London: Zed, 2002), 666-2000.