Frida Kahlo: a portrait in sound
May 23, 2020, 03:27 PM
Piece based on Frida Kahlo portrait by Richard Gadd.
"This portrait is unusual in that it is not a self-portrait, perhaps the form Frida Kahlo is best known for. It is what an other else in her. I am struck by her slightly severe expression and pouted lips giving her a birdlike appearance, the heavy close=knit eyebrows and a suggestion of a moustache.
"We know she was a feminist and gender-fluid and relatively unsuccessful in her lifetime compared to the man, Diego Rivera, whom she twice married. Her most productive time was spent in San Francisco, and her body of work not fully recognised until after her possible/accidental suicide; she had spent most of her life in pain.
"In this piece I have used a recording of a woman, possibly Frida, reciting a poem about Diego Rivera; a recording of a humming bird (see self-portrait with thorn necklace); recordings of a San Francisco cable car pulley and train crossing 16th St which I made and lastly, some electronic music I composed."
Part of the Smithsonian Treasures project, a collection of new sound works inspired by items from the Smithsonian Museums’ collections - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/smithsonian
"This portrait is unusual in that it is not a self-portrait, perhaps the form Frida Kahlo is best known for. It is what an other else in her. I am struck by her slightly severe expression and pouted lips giving her a birdlike appearance, the heavy close=knit eyebrows and a suggestion of a moustache.
"We know she was a feminist and gender-fluid and relatively unsuccessful in her lifetime compared to the man, Diego Rivera, whom she twice married. Her most productive time was spent in San Francisco, and her body of work not fully recognised until after her possible/accidental suicide; she had spent most of her life in pain.
"In this piece I have used a recording of a woman, possibly Frida, reciting a poem about Diego Rivera; a recording of a humming bird (see self-portrait with thorn necklace); recordings of a San Francisco cable car pulley and train crossing 16th St which I made and lastly, some electronic music I composed."
Part of the Smithsonian Treasures project, a collection of new sound works inspired by items from the Smithsonian Museums’ collections - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/smithsonian