Ana Pina Portugal
DB04.002 double pin
Materials gold plated brass, PVC
Size hand: 55x35x5mm | total length: 58cm (the PVC threads can easily be cut)
Piece created for the exhibition I Paint Flowers So They Will Not Die, inspired by Frida Kahlo
Galleria Carlo Lucidi, Rome, 2024
Las Dos Fridas (1939), by Frida Kahlo, is more than a double self-portrait of the artist. 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. Tension, division, confrontation, release.
In Do(u)ble this multiple notion of duality is explored as well as the need to assert our identity. Threads like veins that unite two parts of the same body.
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 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
