Frida Kahlo Immersive Exhibition: A Feminist Visionary
By Hector Morales
Staff Writer
A new art exhibit featuring a modern female artist has opened in Chicago. “Immersive Frida Kahlo; Her Life. Her Love. Her Art,” opened in February at the Lighthouse Artspace located at the Germania Club Building.
The exhibit tells the story of the artist through music and images of her paintings projected in a 500,000 square-foot open space, on 35-foot high walls, with spaced seating, and includes other art installations for a complete, multimedia presentation of the artist’s life as expressed through her innovative and vibrant art.
Kahlo was self-taught and you can see the raw emotion in her magical realistic and naïve folk art in many of her paintings.
As you enter the art space you are greeted by dancing images of vibrant colors on a canvas of walls as the ethereal, melodic, pulsating music demonstrates the joy and pain of the artist.
Kahlo suffered from polio at age six and would have a limp for the rest of her life. Kahlo suffered an injury at the age of 18, requiring 32 surgeries throughout her lifetime as well as 28 medical corsets for extended periods of time. This accident although tragic was a catalyst for because she was confined to a bed she began to paint. And in the exhibit, you can see a picture of Kahlo painting images of her family while in the hospital bed recovering from her accident. A painting shows an image of Kahlo laying with down with her back to the view and two long scars running down her spine can be seen. The exhibit demonstrates how she used her pain to create her moving art and vibrant art.
In one self-portrait, “The Frame,” the unibrow is very evident. The self-portrait was purchased by the Louvre in 1938, making her the first Mexican artist to be featured in their collection.
The exhibit also shows Tehuana dresses from the isthmus of Tehuanantepec, Oxaca, Mexcio, as part of the folk included in Kahlo’s paintings. In one of the 40-minute looping scenes the dresses seem to dance before your eyes to the melodic piano and violin music that surrounds the listener. A separate installation of the replica cotton dresses is also at the location. The dresses were created by students from the McIntosh Arts Center at the College of DuPage.
One of the featured paintings is the 1939 “The Two Fridas,” which has two images of Kahlo seated next to each other and holding hands. The artist has painted a heart on both of her images with veins in the heart chambers visible. One image is dressed in Victorian dress while the other is dressed in a Tehuana dress. The image of the Victorian Frida shows a blood vessel being cut by scissors which she holds in her hands. The Tehuana Frida has a picture of Diego Rivera in her other hand. A blood vessel connects the two Fridas. The image of the heart if part of the magical realism aspect of her work and the two Fridas describe her heritage of German and Mexican ancestry and how she suffered due to her many surgeries. Again, utilizing pain to create art.
Diego Rivera, the great Mexican muralist was an important part of Kahlo’s life. In the painting “Diego and I,” the self-portrait shows Kahlo looking at the viewer and an image of Diego Rivera is painted on her forehead. However, Rivera’s image has their eye on his forehead, keeping with the magical realism aspect of her art. Another 1946 painting entitled “Diego on My Mind (Self-Portrait as Tehuana) again shows Kahlo looking directly at the viewer and an image of Diego Rivera is on her forehead. In this portrait she is dressed in an all-white Tehuana dress combing the magical realism of her art, the Mexican folk art influence, and the image of a strong woman. Kahlo married Rivera when she was 20 years old. Their marriage was frayed, with infidelity from both, and they divorced after 10 years of marriage. A year later they remarried and remained together until Kaklo’s death at the age of 47.
There is also a miniature replica of the “La Casa Azul (The Blue House),” for the structured cobalt-blue walls. Kahlo was born in the Blue House on July 6, 1907, and died on July 15, 1954. The Blue House, which is now the Frida Kahlo Museum, is located in the Colonia del Carmen neighborhood of Coyocán in Mexico City. In 1957, Diego Rivera donated the home to create a home in Kahlo’s honor.
The moving digital images are brought to life by creator Massimiliano Siccardi, and seamlessly interwoven with the music by composer Luca Longobardi. Piano and violins can be heard playing when the self-portraits of Kahlo are showing. One self-portrait with the human skull on her forehead. The eerie music emphasizes the intensity of her gaze in the self-portraits. The music becomes intense with drums when the paintings of Diego Rivera are shown. The voice of a woman flows throughout the entire space as dresses flow around you. Mexican dresses of vibrant colors and textures.
Maria Schlover, Co-producer of the exhibit, said that the objective of the exhibit is “to tell the story of the artist,” because “I was really inspired by the feminist idea.” To Schlover it was important for people to know the story of the artist. “People know the unibrow but don’t know the artist,” Schlover said.
The exhibit is being shown at the Lighthouse Artspace at the Germania Club Building in Chicago located at 108 Germania Place, Chicago, Illinois 60610. For more information on the exhibit and ticket availability, readers can go to the website at https://www.immersive-frida.com/chicago/.
