Unlocking the hidden life of Frida Kahlo
Winner emerges in Korea Speech contest, set for trip to Seoul
Continued from page 22 ‘Mexican Renaissance’, with the country attracting artists, writers, photographers and film-makers from all over the world. Photographs by Edward Weston and Tina Modotti taken in the 1920s are also displayed. And there is a wall of ex votos from Kahlo and Rivera’s collection. The small, tin votive paintings that were offered up to the saints, were an influence on Kahlo’s art.
Garments on show include rebozos (traditional Mexican shawl), huipiles (embroidered square-cut top), enaguas and holanes, long skirts, and jewellery including Columbian jade beans and modern silverwork. There is a resplandor, a lace headdress traditionally worn by the women of Isthmus, alongside a portrait of Kahlo wearing it. And also on show is the artist’s original Revlon red lipstick and the kohl she used to define her famous, signature monobrow.
The aim was to create a pedestal in which the subject can speak for itself, says Scutt: “We hope we have created an experience that carries with it echoes, ghosts of ideas that are reminiscent of the influences in her life but always to have avoided pastiche. It should feel as much 2018 London as it does 1940s Mexico.
“Frida’s life was full of duality and complex opposite ideas, the notion of looking at oneself in the mirror to paint a self-portrait therefore became central [to the exhibition],” says the designer. “It is this duality, reflection, repetition that we have tried to expand across the exhibition to give visitors a sense of the duality within her. I was also keen that we gave a sense of looking at the world from a different angle. There is a photograph that starts our exhibition of Frida reflected in the mirror that hung above her on her fourposter bed.
“I really enjoyed the distorted world view that that image threw up and the Afiniki Silas Bosan has emerged the overall winner of the Korea Speech Contest, a competition organised by the Korean Cultural Centre in Abuja.
The event which held earlier in the week at the KCC premises saw many Nigerian students of the Korean language at the ripples of what it means on a wider view about artistry and disability. I was very keen that the experience somehow embraced and reflected the notion of having a different perspective on the world, thus there are echoes throughout of tilting, leaning, sloping and angled surfaces that crack open and emit light from within. centre presenting speeches in the Asian language, much to the amazement of the audience and judges.
The contest had two categories with Bosan besting Aderogba Oluwaseyi and Soo Mi Uke in the intermediate category, emerging the overall winner, while Maduka Providence beat Akande Toluwanimi and We took inspiration from Frida’s garden podium and I looked a lot at Mayan pyramids to examine the crossovers of this idea and pre-Columbian architecture. In this way we have attempted to fuse the very personal experience through Frida’s eyes, with a much wider sense of the world around her.” ‘Inherently modern’ Matt Thornley of Gibson Thornley Architects, who co-designed the exhibition with Scutt, says that Kahlo’s “complexity” is central.
“The outward image of Frida is so powerful,” he says. “The photographic portraits are bursting with colour and life, as are her paintings. The exhibition explores this but also her physical fragility and inner strength. It is these complexities that make her such an interesting and enduring figure.
And like the artist herself, the design of the exhibition is “inherently modern” says Thornley. “It acts as a backdrop to the objects and paintings that describe key events in her life. The exhibition explores Frida’s roots and her position within the wider context of art, culture and politics in 1920s and 1930s Mexico. However we didn’t want to imitate the imagery associated with this time. Instead the team were interested in exploring themes directly associated with her life. Working on the exhibition has allowed us to learn so much more about her - her strength in the face of personal adversity, her bravery and also humour.”
Kahlo’s individualism, energy and modernity have made her an undisputed Operipo Esther into second and third place respectively in the beginners’ category.
Bosan, whose speech was on Things to Do and See in Seoul, said she started taking lessons in Korean in September and was inspired to present her speech when she learnt that the prize for the winner would be a trip to the Korean capital. icon. But will she continue to influence future generations? Co-curator Circe Henestrosa thinks so: “Definitely,” she says. “Frida Kahlo is the very model of the bohemian artist: unique, rebellious and contradictory, a cult figure that continues to be appropriated by feminists, artists, fashion designers and popular culture. As a woman, an artist, an icon, Kahlo has achieved a rare, almost universal, acclaim. In a society often obsessed with tearing down the walls of the private self, Kahlo is the very embodiment of the ethos du jour. The dress choices she made reflected an intuitive ability to use a bold visual image in a time when men dominated the art world, and it was through art and dress that she conveyed her political beliefs at the same time that she dealt with her disabilities.”
And one thing is certain, Kahlo’s feminist and countercultural passions chime perfectly with current times. As Henestrosa puts it: “During Kahlo’s lifetime she was sometimes viewed as ‘exotic’ or patronised, ‘othered’ but today - her intersectional, and complex, selfconstructed identity is better understood and is inspiring. So this is the message we want to convey in this exhibition. She was a Mexican, female artist who was disabled, looking for a place as a female artist in a highly male-dominated environment in Mexico City. Aren’t we fighting as women for the same today? How much more relevant, and refreshing for our times she can be?”
“I was thinking about the prize and I kept imagining, Oh my Gosh, if I went to Seoul, what would I do. So I thought why not give a speech about this,” she said.
“I got really interested in the language through the music. I like K-Pop a lot because there is a band called Big Bang which I love, and also through the drama as well,”
Bosan, who said she wasn’t expecting to win was pleasantly surprised by the judges’ decision and is excited by her win.
The contest is an annual event organised by the KCCN, with winners and two runners-up in both categories going home with cash prizes as well a trip to Seoul for the overall winner.