Women Cinemakers meets
Katie Cercone Lives and works in New York City, USA
Solara Saturnalia (Kawaii Kali REDUX) is a feature length film by artist Katie Cercone exploring Afro-Asiatic algorithms, Japanese appropriation of American Hip Hop and contemporary worship of the many faces of the Black Earth Mother. Filmed in Tokyo, Japan, SOLARA is a kaleidoscopic flow of third eye candy set to an original soundtrack by Alees Yvon and XHOSA. The film features rapper Kawaii Kali’s first recorded single. A dynamic shape-shifting Goddess, SOLARA Saturnalia is a contemporary mythic figure whose siren signals the rebirth of the global hood. Amongst her many guises she represents 4 primary faces of the Great Mother: Solar/Sun energy associated with Japanese deity Amaterasu and Ganguro “heavily sunburned black face” as a form of her worship; myths of the snake and the rainbow tracing back to indigenous Buddha; Black Sailor Moon as a contemporary expression of the female Buddha Tara in her blue/black incantation, and creator/destroyer Kawaii Kali.
Interview with Katie Cercone maker of SOLARA SATURNALIA (Kawaii Kali Redux) Starring Alees Yvon and the Black Diamond Ganguro Gal UNIT An interview by Francis L. Quettier
School Of Visual Arts (SVA): how did these experiences influence your evolution as an artist? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your artistic research?
and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com Hello Katie and welcome to
: we would
start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid background and after having earned your BA from Lewis and Clark College you nurtured your education with an MFA, that you received from the
A great deal of my motivation for studying at Lewis & Clark College in Portland was immersing myself in the radical d.i.y. / zine culture / LGBTQ / feminist / punk ethos that fundamentally permeates the community spirit there. The first time I visited PDX it was to sell and trade my feminist