Project Name: Hear Frida Kahlo
Project Statement:
The visual part of his project will be a Frida Kahlo painting or some icons extracted from Frida’s paintings that will equivalently symbolize her ideas as an embodied material of her statements.
Ideally, this interactive installation needs to be set up in a room. On one of the walls, Frida’s painting will be projected. At the entrance of the room, there might be flowers prepared for visitors so that they can take some and put in front of Kahlo’s painting to demonstrate respect to this person’s legendary yet ordinary life. This is also motivating the users/visitors to feel the sense that they are participating in a ritual, a tribute to someone they might not be familiar with and they are on the way to know this person.
In the room, a nonstopping soundtrack of heartbeats will be played and looping in order to surround the users by strong sounds. While Frida’s paintings/ portraits are projected at the center of the wall, some 3-D printed organs such as (Frida’s)eyes, (Frida’s) heart are presented. In the heart is a distance-detector that senses the audience approach. Once the users are close enough, the painting on the wall will shift to next – in other words, the user’s approach triggers changes. The change represents the change of Frida, different stages in her life.
I want this installation project to offer a rather immersive experience to the users where they can feel surrounded, familiar and unfamiliar, known and unknown. I hope this can be an introduction as well as a tribute to Frida Kahlo. Like her paintings and life stories that always lure people’s attention and awe, I hope that this immersive experience can lure people’s curiosity and reflection. So the visitors can leave with questions: Who is this person? Why am I introduced to this person today? What is this person’s story? Do I know this person? Do I know her well enough?