Terence Koh is an artist who lives in Chinatown. First and foremost, Terence is a friend and we've known each other for over 10 years. We always reminisce about our fun days as youth in New York. We still manage to have as much fun as we had then, and I'm sure 10 years from now it'll be that much more fun. Terence presently features an installation in the window of the New York Opening Ceremony store, and his current collaboration with us includes an exclusive collection of three tee shirts.

Humberto Leon: For your collection with Opening Ceremony you teamed up to design three graphic tee shirts. Tell us a bit about each of the graphics.
Terence Koh: well i hope that it is an ongoing story, so its not just the three t-shirts. i really want all the stuff that i make, and i call it tings, not clothes, cause it could be a rock, a coat, eyeglasses but they appear magically in the store. so not on mannequins, or maybe sometimes. but they just appears on the rack or on the ceiling or on the wall. or in the air or like outside overnight. and i am working right now for the installtion of the window display for it. and it just mostly giant white neon words "the" "whole" "family" each is a white neon and bright and white. and yoo get lost in the words, the light. and there is not really a name or label for this presentation of these objects at the store. for headache saving purposes we call this project "the whole family", but really that is just the title for the story of tings i want to make for the store. i can't just make tings for myself at my own home, so this is an outlet to poot that feeling out for somebody else to feel either the sadness, a smile, the imagination of a flower falling slowly. like for the pearl shirt, its like sinking deep into the ocean and dying. the purple boy upside down shirt, each was shot with a bullet hole. bang, bang, like 21 times.  the whole family, well that is the whole family. and so we go on.

HL: Why did you chose to collaborate with Opening Ceremony?
TK: because i love humberto and carol as a brother and a sister and keep it in the whole family. you make something out of love and it is a gift and it is a great thing to share the idea of love. no, not an idea, just love. cause true love burns through bright and white.

HL: Describe an ideal outfit to be paired with one of your shirts.
TK: since as i breathed before its just not shirts, you just pair it for yourself and somebody else. like yoo put together an outfit first for being outside to affect somebody else, even if its one person. then its for yourself. so yoo tink about the world other than just the idea of your self.

HL: The pearl shirt you created for us seems inspired by your piece "Boy by the Sea". Why did you choose to use ideas from this piece in your collection?
TK: boy by the sea has a haiku for it when it was first shown as a performance in yokohama

hiding a white pearl
dressed all in white and silent
following rabbit

but it could also bee

hiding a white pearl
dressed all in white and silent
the whole family

i mean family not in the sense of father, mother, daughter, son
i wanted it to have the sense of being familiar
familiar objects that are touched with love   i love every piece   everthing

HL:If you could have a 3D pearl covered clone of someone else's body, whose would it be?
TK: i can only see myself in this idea

HL: You found someone to gift you the Fendi fur of your dreams. How did you manage to do that? Is it a skill that can be taught?
TK: i am sad for the animals and history and my actions. i do not tink it is beautiful to wear fur. i never did but i was being selfish. i cannot bear to feel and see the cruelty to other feeling beings.

HL:Which famous person do you wish would be seated next to you at a fashion show?
TK: john lennon.
 
HL: There's a nice shoe collection that greets you at the entrance of ASS. Which pair is your favorite?
TK: my reebok pumps i have to spray paint with krylon matt white.

HL: You've made works from chocolate, human hair, lollipops, vomit... what are some materials you hope to work with next?
TK: the idea of like the idea of an idea of a beautiful perfect tommorrow.

HL: What do you never leave home without?
TK: my contact lenses. otherwise i can't see as i am pretty blind.

HL: Where is a place that you have never been and want to go?
TK: i have been to the ryoanji garden in kyoto. but not after the first snowfall.

HL: What is the most beautiful view you have ever seen?
TK: the first snowfall at the ryonji garden with garrick by my side. i am wearing an all white kimono.

HL: What is your favorite smell?
TK: the smell of garrick by my side in bed in the dark.

HL: Have you ever seen a ghost?
TK: yes. around 11 or so in singapore. it was a really scary experience and i still get goose-bumps remembering that. i couldn't shout or move. i was paralysed. that was it. never since.

HL:What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
TK: read a section from "flowers of evil".

HL: What is the last thing you do before you go to sleep?
TK: get lost.

Check out these behind the scenes shots of Terence and his team transforming the Opening Ceremony New York window.


FILED UNDER: new arrivals, terence koh, collaboration, exclusive, terence koh for opening ceremony, humberto leon , art, instax