Subjectivity and identity in the ‘self-portraits’ of Frida Kahlo and Yasumasa Morimura

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Yasumasa Morimura (1951- ) are particularly linked together by Morimura's replication of a number of Kahlo's signature works.

Self-portrait as a Tehuana (1943) by Frida Kahlo

In relationship to the 'canon' of art, I want to suggest that the works address themselves to (an idea of) the 'Western' viewer, but also challenge the overly determined relationship of the 'non-Western' artist to potential non-Western audiences. I suggest that each artist claims the validity (and difficulty) of 'indigenous' looking, as well as inviting the gaze of the 'West,' by incorporating visual elements that speak to participants in their respective indigenous traditions as well as the dominant tradition of the West. I will argue that the images constitute acts of resistance to the artist's construction as a subject by Orientalist discourse, and it is this 'othered' position from which the artist tries to speak about their 'othered' or 'orientalised' position. Kahlo would appear to adopt a more active mode of resistance than that of Morimura, who seems to passively deny the possibility of an integral, representable self, whereas Kahlo boldly asserts her presence and self-determination.

An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Flower Wreath and Tears) (2001) by Yasumasa Morimura

The terms available to discuss this process of identity construction must be considered first. To what extent are the images 'self-portraits'? Kahlo participates in the tradition of artists' self-portraiture, painting images that we understand (through the assistance of photographs) to resemble her, yet also to stylise her appearance. Morimura's images are much harder to name as self-portraits; although they persistently feature his face, he is never shown as himself. He performs his presence without allowing the traditional premise of portraiture, that it is possible to access in some way the nature or character of the person we see depicted. I would suggest that, more than a 'self' which is knowable and whole, the images of both artists depict the performance of 'identity'.

My Dress Hangs There (1933) by Frida Kahlo

What is meant by identity? Stuart Hall emphasises the extent to which ideas of wholeness and integrity, which have been central to the notion of an identity that continues through time and forms a coherent whole, have been undermined in the transition from modernism to postmodernism:

The deconstruction has been conducted within a variety of disciplinary areas, all of them, in one way or another, critical of the notion of an integral, originary and unified identity. The critique of the self-sustaining subject at the centre of post-Cartesian metaphysics has been comprehensively advanced in philosophy (1996, p.15).

This dichotomy between a 'unified' identity and its later, 'undermined' condition divides Kahlo and Morimura, Kahlo belonging to the era of the 'self-sustaining subject' and Morimura demonstrating the "endlessly performative self [which] has been advanced in celebratory variants of postmodernism" (ibid, p.15).

Self-portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States (1932) by Frida Kahlo

Edward Said articulates another aspect of identity, the extent to which "modern and primitive societies seem […] to derive a sense of their identities negatively" (2003, p.54). Amartya Sen similarly observes the extent to which many in the 'non-Western' world – or tricontinental world (Young, 2003, p.5) – "define their identity primarily in terms of being different from Western people" (2007, p.91) [emphasis in original]. He sees this as an example of "a more general pattern of development of reactive identity" (2007, p.91), whereby people in the 'non-Western' world primarily identify themselves as just that, not Western – in terms of what they are not rather than what they are.

However, Sen also sees a strong element of choice in identity-formation:

 The freedom to determine our loyalties and priorities between the different groups to all of which we may belong is a peculiarly important liberty which we have reason to recognise, value, and defend (2007, p.5).

In this formulation, while there are over-arching frameworks within which identity choices are made, the choices remain real.

Daughter of Art History (Princess A) (1990) by Yasumasa Morimura

In the self-images of Kahlo and Morimura what form of identity is postulated? Broadly speaking I would suggest that Kahlo claims a whole, 'unified' and knowable identity which can be engaged with through her artworks and over which she has control and authorship – the 'self-sustaining subject'. Morimura, working after the undermining of this form of identity, denies the representability of his self as a coherent whole, and illustrates Lynne Cooke's claim that "all formulations of the postmodern agree in detecting a crisis of representation" (1990, p.xx). His re-creation of the self-portraits of other artists seems to claim that representation of the self or even the person is now so problematised that it cannot be fruitfully done, and the cannibalising[1] of the existing icons of representative art is the only way to make new images; the end of origination and the elevation of quotation.

There are enormous differences in the way both artists deploy important themes in their identities. I will look at ethnicity, nationality, tradition, authorship, femininity and gender performativity to explore the roles these factors play in the construction of each 'artistic self'.

Ethnicity is an important element in Morimura's work, as he

 insert[s] himself in the centre of the mainstream of modernist art, something no previous Eastern artist was able to accomplish – outsiders being seen typically as derivative when they emulated Western modes, and as exotic when they used indigenous forms (Cooke, 1990, p.14).

The phrase "being seen" is revealing of the assumption that whomever is doing this seeing is of the West, and certainly not someone 'Eastern,' who would likely not read 'indigenous forms' as 'exotic' but rather familiar and perhaps even traditional. Is this a question then of ethnicity or nationality? I would suggest that Morimura is able to address both Eastern and Western audiences, and indeed would not maintain that such a clear distinction can be made any longer. I would suggest that, more than 'Japanese-ness' or 'east Asian-ness,' the significance of Morimura's presence within Western images is as a 'non-Westerner' who intrudes into territory reserved for (usually) white Westerners.

Memory (1937) by Frida Kahlo

Kahlo emphasises her Mexican identity in numerous images and notably in the self-portraits through jewellery, hairstyle, clothing, and the inclusion of symbols of Mexico and pre-Columbian artefacts. Kahlo's tehuana dress features in many images. This is the traditional dress from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, an area renowned for traditionally matriarchal communities in which women were regarded as strong and capable. Hayden Herrera notes that "[t]his was the costume that she habitually wore to please her husband, to assert her Mexican identity, and to hide the slight limp caused by her injured right leg" (1992, p.6). Self-Portrait as a Tehuana, 1943, (fig.1) is a key image that is later re-created by Morimura (fig.2). The tehuana dress symbolises 'Mexican-ness,' and is also used to symbolise Kahlo herself, in My Dress Hangs There, 1933 (fig.3). Herrera describes Kahlo's "self-creation as a colourful personality" (1992, p.7), emphasising the constructed quality of Kahlo's representation of herself to the world.

Femininity is another aspect of the identities being postulated or performed by each artist. Kahlo predominantly depicts herself wearing a dress, and in the later self-portraits, often with flowers in her hair. Yet she also exaggerates the heaviness of her eyebrows – visually strongly associated with the masculine rather than the feminine – as well as hair on her upper lip. This could be read as an anti-idealising gesture, the artist wishing the representation to be received as an honest rendering because it is prepared to accommodate 'unflattering' elements. It seems to form part of an artistic, created identity that is unflinching in regarding suffering, bold in defying convention, not in the grip of vanity.

An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Gift 2) (2001) by Yasumasa Morimura

Femininity in Morimura is very ambiguous. He rarely re-creates images of men, and so frequently 'inhabits' the role of the female model. Cooke notes postmodernism's critique of modernism's binary oppositions, "between the centre and periphery, the self and other, interiority and exteriority, male and female" (1990, p.5). I would suggest that here is a claim that identity is now so undefined and uncertain, and the concept of binary oppositions so challenged, that the male artist can interpellate himself into the female image.

If femininity is at issue in these images, where is its binary pair, masculinity? Judith Butler's discussion of gender performativity is useful here. She highlights the constructed and performative nature of gender:

 To the extent that the naming of the 'girl' is transitive, that is, initiates a process by which a certain 'girling' is compelled, the term or, rather its symbolic power, governs the formation of a corporeally enacted femininity that never fully approximates the norm. This is a 'girl,' however, who is compelled to 'cite' the norm in order to qualify and remain a viable subject. Femininity is thus not the product of a choice, but the forcible citation of a norm, one whose complex historicity is indissociable from relations of discipline, regulation, punishment. Indeed, there is no 'one' who takes on a gender norm. On the contrary, this citation of the gender norm is necessary in order to qualify as a 'one,' to become viable as a 'one,' where subject-formation is dependent on the prior operation of legitimating gender norms (1993, p.111).

Each 'subject,' then, in order to become valid and to uphold the norm, performs the pre-existing gender role already set out for them prior to their birth. A fairly straightforward performativity underlies Kahlo's feminine identity in the self-portraits. She firmly maintains her subjectivity as a 'one,' and from that position makes choices, which both promote and challenge her femininity.

Dedicated to La Duquesa de Alba/ Black Alba, Los Nuevos Caprichos (2004) by Yasumasa Morimura

In Morimura the performativity is reflexive, observing itself and exposing its constructed nature to the viewer. In these images Morimura's 'identity' is not seeking to 'qualify as a one'' – it is seeking to make visible the denial, by the viewer, of this qualification, due to his failure to cite the relevant gender norm.

Butler follows Louis Althusser in identifying 'interpellation' as the method by which the subject is constructed: "the 'I' only comes into being through being called, named, interpellated, to use the Althusserian term, and this discursive constitution takes place prior to the 'I'" (Butler, 1993, p.109).

Therefore the gender norms are already in place, as discourse, and the individual is interpellated into their gender through the speech act of 'hailing'. Althusser describes how 'hailing' operates to construct individuals as subjects:

 […] ideology[2] 'acts' or 'functions' in such a way that it 'recruits' subjects among the individuals (it recruits them all), or 'transforms' the individuals into subjects (it transforms them all) by that very precise operation which I have called interpellation or hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most common everyday police (or other) hailing: 'Hey, you there!' […] There are individuals walking along. Somewhere (usually behind them) the hail rings out: 'Hey, you there!' One individual (nine times out of ten it is the right one) turns round, believing/suspecting/knowing that it is for him, i.e. recognizing that 'it really is he' who is meant by the hailing […] The existence of ideology and the hailing or interpellation of individuals as subjects are one and the same thing (2008, pp.48-49).

Individuals are therefore "always-already subjects" (ibid, p.50) [emphasis in original]. Althusser identifies two meanings of the difficult term 'subject'. The first is a 'free subjectivity,' author of its own actions, responsible; the second is the sense of being subjected to an authority, only able to 'freely' choose submission (ibid, p.56). Althusser concludes that "the individual is interpellated as a (free) subject […] in order that he shall (freely) accept his subjection" (ibid, p.56) [emphasis original].

So we arrive at a subject that has always-already been interpellated into their subjectivity, and the 'role' the subject is required to play is not of their choosing. Subjects must always act from within this subjectivity.

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Kahlo and Morimura both enact specific strategies of (postcolonial) resistance. Rather than simply reading self-portraiture as specific acts of resistance, they embody whole strategies to transform their subjectivity to colonial and orientalist forces into a speaking subjectivity capable of articulating themselves out of the mute position of 'other'. While for Kahlo this resistance is ultimately self-referential and therefore a closed system with which to understand her specific subjectivity (and therefore without wider application), Morimura turns deconstruction's endless scepticism about meaning back on orientalist discourse itself and playfully slips its bonds in so doing. As political analogies, these outline patterns for individual and collective postcolonial self-determination that are of the utmost significance.

[1] Young discusses cannibalism as a symbolic strategy of resistance of Carib indians to the conquistadores, literally consuming the intrusive culture in order to neutralize its negative influence.

[2] There remains debate as to whether it is possible to "bring about the long-awaited rapprochement between psychoanalysis and discourse theory" (Redman, 2007, p.13). 'Ideology' comes from Althusser via Lacanian psychoanalysis, but 'discourse' is favoured by Michel Foucault, on whom Said draws in formulating his concept of Orientalism as a totalising discourse. I will not pursue this further here, and will use 'discourse' to describe the over-arching means by which subjects are created and interpellated into subject-positions.

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