RorschachYoshida LXXXIV (Gold Merchant M)

In her most recent project, “Painting, Self-Portrait”, Kimiko Yoshida wears elaborate costumes and paints her skin in a monochrome color that matches the background. The monochromatic elements accentuate the fashion of Yoshida’s costumes and drown out the individuality of the artist, for whom the costume is “the field of diversion, detournement, and deflection.” The visual elements, coupled with the titles’ reference to artists and paintings of the past from Titian to Warhol are meant to come together to challenge conventional notions and traditions of art and cultural identity. Yoshida desires an “image that tries to rethink its own meanings and references”. By constantly changing what at first appears to be a self-portrait, Yoshida says, “I am basically saying that there is no such thing as a self-portrait. Each of these photographs is actually a ceremony of disappearance. It is not an emphasis of identity, but the opposite—an erasure of identity”.