Self-Portrait, Actress - After Charlotte Rampling, The Night Porter
Date1994
Mediumcibachrome print on paper
DimensionsImage: 24 × 20 inches (61 × 50.8 cm)
Image (Sight): 19 1/2 × 15 5/8 inches (49.5 × 39.7 cm)
Portfolio/Series"Printed Matter Photography Portfolio 1. Portraits"
Credit LineGift of Zoë and Joel Dictrow.
Object number2012.12.11
Copyright© 1994. Yasumasa Morimura; Image courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextYasumasa Morimura is known for appropriating images from Western culture by staging recreations of scenes with himself as the main character, using costumes, props, stages, and occasional digital manipulation. In this instance, Morimura is emulating Charlotte Rampling, a British actress known for her sex appeal and provocative performances in films such as Liliana Cavani’s controversial film The Night Porter, about the relationship between an SS officer and an inmate in a concentration camp. Rampling was also photographed nude by fashion photographer Helmut Newton (German, 1920-2004) in a similar pose for Playboy magazine in 1974. As a Japanese male artist assuming a European persona during World War II, transforming both his race and gender, Morimura raises questions of identity and representation in the modern world.
