Out of the Box

Frida Kahlo with Olmec figurine, 1939. Photograph Nickolas Muray. © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives

Do you also posess a nicely adorned haberdashery box with threads, needles and buttons that you use for repairing clothes? This personal box often is connected with dear memories, as it might have already been used by ones mother or grandmother. Maybe you have experienced special moments with your grandmother while she did some needlework?

When having a look at the wooden sewing box with velvet, silk, leather and paint of Frida Kahlo shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition in London, we might imagine how some of those intimate moments would have felt together with this famous Mexican artist at her home, the Casa Azul (Blue House) in Mexico City in the first decades of the 20th century. Would we have heard her talking about her feelings for her husband Diego Rivera? Or about the love affairs she had? Maybe she would have told us about her views on life. Personal stories about her journeys to the USA and Paris would have been very interesting, too. Maybe her friends and family would have been a focus, or perhaps her love for gardening and animals? What about simply imagining a chat with Frida about fashion and her beauty products and dresses? The pieces shown in “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up” until the 4th of November 2018 inspire our phantasy with regards to such a conversation.
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Preview of pages above: The Protagonist Magazine, June 2018; Frida Kahlo with Olmec figurine, 1939. Photograph Nickolas Muray. © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives, Exhibition Victoria and Albert Museum London, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up” until the 4th of November 2018.

Published online:
Huse, Birgitta (2018) “Out of the Box: Between Photos, Paintings and Prosthetics”, Shergill, Ram and Daen Palma Huse (eds)(2018) The Protagonist Magazine, online, (London).