Performance artist Yasumasa Morimura transforms himself into famous people such as Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Andy Warhol, and others. He also reenacts historical scenes like the execution of Nguyen Van Lem, and a sailor kissing a girl on V-J Day in Times Square. Morimura’s body of work definitely reminds me of Cindy Sherman’s conceptual photos.

Notes about Morimura: ^[1]

Yasumasa Morimura (b.1951, Osaka) appropriates universally well known images derived from art history, mass media and pop culture to create unconventional and bold self-portrait renderings in photography, performance and video. Through the extensive use of props, costumes, make-up and digital manipulation, Morimura masterfully transforms himself into recognizable subjects that punctuate the western cultural cannon. His series include works based on seminal paintings by artists such as Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, Velazquez or Goya and on pictorial sources from history and the mass media. His unsettling deconstruction of iconic images and masterpieces challenges the assumptions already placed on such works/images while commenting on Japan’s complex and conflicting absorption of Western culture

1. "Artists Bio." Luhringaugustine.co. Retrieved on March 1st, 2012.

Photos © Yasumasa Morimura

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