Do(u)ble
I Paint Flowers So They Will Not Die, collective exhibition inspired by Frida Kahlo
Galleria Carlo Lucidi, Rome, 2024
gold plated brass, sterling silver, PVC
Las Dos Fridas (1939), by Frida Kahlo, is more than a double self-portrait of the artist. It's a reflection of the duality between who we are and who we want to be - or who the world demands us to be. The conflict that derives from our relationship between the self and the other - or between us and ourselves. It's a struggle between the inside and the outside, between the mental and the emotional, between the will and the power, between the genuine and the artificial - between the secrets we keep and the mask we wear to avoid revealing them.
Two united hearts, two hands that are divided between the gesture of remembering and cutting with the past. The cut as a desperate act to stifle the pain. Tension, division, confrontation, release.
How many times does the mirror return an image that we don't recognize? How many times do we attack ourselves to defend ourselves? How many times what unites is also what separates?
In Do(u)ble this multiple notion of duality is explored. The need to assert our identity, almost like a revolutionary act. Threads like veins that unite two parts of the same body - the hands that create and destroy, that grab and repel. In them we keep the regenerating effect of a touch and the transformative power of acceptance, the repressed desire to make peace with who we are, before being able to make peace with the world.
The double pieces in this series can be easily transformed into two individual pieces by a simple cut with scissors. We need to have the courage to choose: if instead of a single earring we want two, if instead of a double pin we want two and - why not? - we decide to share it with someone else, who we literally give a hand to.
References:
Las Dos Fridas / The Two Fridas, 1939
Autorretrato Dedicado a Dr Eloesser / Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr Eloesser, 1940
Nickolas Muray, Frida with Picasso Earrings, 1939
