Jane Fonda 1 (Barbarella)
Since the 1980s, Morimura has been creating staged photographs in which he inserts himself into images drawn from art history and popular culture, using makeup, costumes, props, and digital manipulation to transform his appearance. Here, he appears sprawled across a scarlet lip-shaped sofa, costumed as Jane Fonda in the title role of the campy science fiction film, Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (1968). Morimura’s witty, gender-bending images straddle the line between satire and homage, exploring the multiplicity of identity and the effect of images on one’s sense of self. Throughout the 1990s, he worked extensively with the Polaroid camera. The small instant prints offered immediate feedback to Morimura in his roles as both model and maker, anticipating the intensive process of self-fashioning that dominates social media today.
Artwork Details
- Title: Jane Fonda 1 (Barbarella)
- Artist: Yasumasa Morimura (Japanese, born Osaka, 1951)
- Date: 1995
- Medium: Instant dye diffusion transfer print
- Dimensions: Image: 3 7/16 × 4 5/8 in. (8.8 × 11.7 cm)
Sheet: 4 in. × 5 1/8 in. (10.1 × 13 cm)
Frame: 8 7/16 × 10 7/16 in. (21.5 × 26.5 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2023
- Object Number: 2023.387
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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