I Want to Live a Thousand More Years (Self-portrait After Dengue with tropical plants and fake flowers)

Wawi Navarozza’s I Want to Live a Thousand More Years (Self-portrait After Dengue, with tropical plants and fake flowers), (2016) presents the artist dressed in mismatched floral patterns, seated on a red stool against an indoor tropical garden of potted plants, fake flowers, floral patterned fabrics and a backdrop painted blue to evoke the sky. The wooden crutch on her side and the black skull on the floor temper this floral exuberance — a reminder of our human frailty and mortality. This is a portrait of the artist as a survivor, emerging from a serious bout with dengue with a new appreciation for life. The image plays on notions of natural and artificial, interiority and exteriority, fragility and resilience, life and death.

I Want to Live a Thousand More Years (Self-portrait After Dengue, with tropical plants and fake flowers), (2016) is a self-referential contemplation of identity, culture, and female representation in art. Inspired by the riot of colour and sensory excess of daily life in the Philippines, Navarozza’s tableau that fills almost every visible space is deeply rooted in the tropical climate and cultural influences of her homeland. In turning the camera onto herself, she reiterates the agency of women in determining how they are portrayed, underscoring resilience and strength as defining characteristics of contemporary femininity.