Loose woman 2 1988

Sergei Parajanov made this collage, Loose Woman 2, using paper. Here, he's working with the Mona Lisa, obscuring and abstracting the face. Another pair of hands is added where the breasts might be. I can imagine him, snipping away, piecing things together, letting the subconscious lead the way. He doesn't have a fixed idea. He's in a conversation with Leonardo DaVinci. The paper's got that aged, yellowy tone, which gives it a sense of history, like we are excavating memories. This work asks us to consider the female form through the lens of art history and contemporary collage. It's like Parajanov is saying, let's play with the canon, let's question it, and see what new meanings we can create. We must remember that artists are always building on what came before, remixing and reimagining. Each brushstroke or, in this case, each cut and paste, carries a dialogue, a nod to the past, and a push towards the future.