For An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Hand Shaped Earring), Yasumasa Morimura transformed himself into the feminist icon of modern art, Kahlo herself. Wrapped in his Louis Vuitton rebozo, Morimura appropriates the image of Kahlo, commenting on the way that Kahlo’s life and art has been turned into a symbol for a sort of non-specific radical politics, much like the image of Che Guevara has been used to peddle t-shirts and declare a resistance of some undefined kind. Kahlo has spawned an assortment of merchandise for the Fridamaniac, she’s been turned into a brand used to encroach the young, the politically inclined and interested in art. Morimura turns the traditional relationship of branding on its head - instead of the gallery creating a round-a-bout of products and posters to fill the gift shop, the artist himself appropriates the image and turns it into another, more subversive, sort of advertising, invoking the specific Mexican cultural icons of Kahlo’s work and also the international logos of high-price branding.
Click through on the image for a link to a collection of Morimura’s work on the Saatchi Gallery website.
