Summer Project
Instalation concept
During summer we where left with the task to develop an idea for a politically aware instalation piece. I am a big fan of Frida Kahlo's work for so many reasons, her political awareness ahead of her time, her bravery for speaking up about issues like feminism, socialism, womens sexuality and mental health. I have always admired her and I feel a big bond with her work for all of this and because of her love of our country of birth Mexico.
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| Las Dos Fridas , 1939 |
So I wanted to make homage to one of her pieces "Las dos Fridas" which is one of her most famous paintings. This painting represents her divorce with her then husband, paintor Diego Rivera. We can talk about how this represents mostly heartbreak and separation but I wanted to mainly focus on the duality of this painting. This 2 different Fridas clinging to each but being so different - one of them being the european and liberal Frida and the other being the mexican and in love Frida. She understood what being a woman was like in both Germany and Mexico, how mexican ideals where so different to european ones.
Being mixed race in Mexico is completely normal as we are a country born and bred on the tragedy of colonization as we have had many different european customs forced on us. With time we have learnt to love it and hate it and to this day it creates issues that hurt our society.
Being in a position where I can understand the feeling of having two selves for each nationality is interesting. As any mexican nowadays we all have european blood somewhere along the lines, but being mexican and japanese and having access to both cultures has given me oportunities that i am very grateful for. Growing up in a country where there is very small asian comunity it was clear that many of the principles I grew up with because of my mother where very different to the ones the rest of the people I knew grew up with.
I have lived most my life never being able to claim a nationality, I have never felt mexican or japanese enough to fit in a category people nowadays are so keen on creating. I have realized that I am never gonna be predominantly any of them because I am split, I have my own "Two Fridas".
So I asked my sister to help me as she shares this feeling with me, I wanted to take a self portait that makes homage to this duality. I wanted to show how it is a conflict mixed race people live with.
I tried to recreate the painting as close and I could.
I chose red because I wanted the dresses to represent Frida's exposed hearts, and I got a string that we both put to our hearts that represents my bond to both cultures and my sister.
I added the scissors to represent how easy it could be to deny one of the nationalities.
I have mixed feelings about the result because I feel like there are a lot of things I could have done differently, I dont love the colour palette but I like the lighting. I want to add more elements to it to make it a more accurate representation of the painting.
Later I tried a little test shoot using the sky as a background instead of the location we used before.
I realized I had to use a flash for it to look crisp but I felt like that took away from the feeling Frida was trying to portray.
If I where to carry on this concept I would try to find a way to merge both photographs together.
Being mixed race in Mexico is completely normal as we are a country born and bred on the tragedy of colonization as we have had many different european customs forced on us. With time we have learnt to love it and hate it and to this day it creates issues that hurt our society.
Being in a position where I can understand the feeling of having two selves for each nationality is interesting. As any mexican nowadays we all have european blood somewhere along the lines, but being mexican and japanese and having access to both cultures has given me oportunities that i am very grateful for. Growing up in a country where there is very small asian comunity it was clear that many of the principles I grew up with because of my mother where very different to the ones the rest of the people I knew grew up with.
I have lived most my life never being able to claim a nationality, I have never felt mexican or japanese enough to fit in a category people nowadays are so keen on creating. I have realized that I am never gonna be predominantly any of them because I am split, I have my own "Two Fridas".
So I asked my sister to help me as she shares this feeling with me, I wanted to take a self portait that makes homage to this duality. I wanted to show how it is a conflict mixed race people live with.
 |
| Two Fridas |
I tried to recreate the painting as close and I could.
I chose red because I wanted the dresses to represent Frida's exposed hearts, and I got a string that we both put to our hearts that represents my bond to both cultures and my sister.
I added the scissors to represent how easy it could be to deny one of the nationalities.
I have mixed feelings about the result because I feel like there are a lot of things I could have done differently, I dont love the colour palette but I like the lighting. I want to add more elements to it to make it a more accurate representation of the painting.
Later I tried a little test shoot using the sky as a background instead of the location we used before.
I realized I had to use a flash for it to look crisp but I felt like that took away from the feeling Frida was trying to portray.
 |
| Test |
If I where to carry on this concept I would try to find a way to merge both photographs together.
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