Corrin Evans is a filmmaker exploring shadow integration, death, eroticism and the supernatural. She will be presenting her film work on our projections for the next Salon on January 11th. Today, we talk to her about her work, and who her biggest influences are.
Photo by Max Fairclough.
1. Why do you make this type of art?
The poetry works, specifically, are a practice in channeling. What I am channeling I cannot say, exactly. My pain, my pleasure, my desire, the supernatural, the divine. Perhaps none of that. Or all of it. The pieces allow me to create with total freedom within the boundaries I've created for myself. Making films is hard, and it takes a lot of people. It is my first love, filmmaking. But these small pieces that require either tiny shoots or me capturing things I see with my iphone and then pairing them with voiceover from myself or friends is simple and I can do it mostly on my own...which allows me to create with immediacy and channel what I'm feeling in the moment.
2. Did you always want to be an artist?
Yes. Or I guess, rather, I just always was creating. From the time I was a small child I was storytelling in any way I could. I wrote plays, put on performances in the backyard, traveled with my sisters as children performing as an a'capella group...any way I could create an experience for an audience. Later when I was about twelve my parents gave me a handycam and I started making little movies.
3. Do you listen to music while you create? If so, what is on your playlist?
I do. My top artists to listen to while I write my screenplays are Boy Harsher, Pixel Grip, Rajna's album Black Tears, Mr. Kitty, Divna Ljubojevic, Arca is a newer addition, and Aïsha Devi...Aïsha actually was kind enough to provide music for one of my previous films 'Death is a Soft Limit'.
4. Who are your biggest influences?
Noé, Jodorowsky, Refn...not a person but a place, I love Bulgaria. I've spent a lot of time there and the mash up of the soviet era buildings with these beautiful gardens and ancient churches... it's haunting. I also love this italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. She painted in the style of Caravaggio a bunch of her works depicted horrific scenes from the Bible. She went through a whole trial after coming forward about being assaulted by a fellow painter she was working with. To me she's sort of this icon, enduring public shaming and creating macabre works that embrace the pain of life.
5. What has been a seminal experience?
The first time I engaged with rope. I spent a lot of my lifetime fighting my shame around sexuality and my body and desires. I had sort of come up with this plan that was really just a ploy for me to get to experience bondage... I was planning to do a music video that included it knew I needed to experience the rope myself to be able to direct the actress in the video and not harm her by leaving her in bondage for too long etc. A friend of mine connected me with a rope top who gave me my first experience and it was life changing. I discovered that for me, my interest in kink was spiritual and had a depth to it that went far beyond carnal desire. Shadow integration.
6. Name something you love (anything) and why.
I love deep conversations where whoever is speaking to me reveals something that they have never told anyone else or are afraid to tell people in their lives about. It is such a high honor to hold space for people to be seen in something they have shame around or are terrified they will be shamed for. I consider it to be part of my purpose in this life, to hold that space for people. It's the highest honor to me.
