Yasumasa Morimura. Aimai-no-bi (Ambiguous Beauty). 1995

For Ambiguous Beauty, Japanese photographer and appropriation artist Yasumasa Morimura photographed himself as Marilyn Monroe in her first Playboy pin-up, complete with wig and fake breasts. The reverse side of the fan shows the Japanese character for “love,” and the fan is packaged in a box made from Paulownia, a type of wood historically used by the Japanese for the presentation of formal fans. Morimura frequently borrows historic and iconic images and recreates them using his own face and body, using images taken from artists ranging from Manet and Rembrandt to Cindy Sherman and Frida Kahlo as a means of exploring issues of identity, gender, politics, and art history.

The fan, which is part of MoMA’s collection, is now available to the public in limited quantities, and all proceeds benefit MoMA PS1.